The Harbour Question.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13340, 31 March 1911, Page 2

The Harbour Question.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Mr Hatrick has ve-opcned the question of making a deep draught harbour at a point on the right bank of the river below the land held'by the Railway Department. His proposal is a fair one for debate, and, being an old member of the Harbour Board, a large shipper, and' a ship owner, Mr Hatriek is entitled to be heard, and his arguments refuted or accepted. If it can be proved that Mi: Hatrick's proposal is within our reach, and that the annual cost in interest and sinking fund, together with maintenance, would not be greater than the extra cost of haulage from Castlecliff, and that the scheme was endorsed by the best engineering authorities, I should heartily support, it, but as I cannot do this, and having signed the proposed scheme now before the public, I feel called upon to state my reasons for the position I take up. If it will cost ,£200,000 to carry out the proposed works at Castlecliff, it does not require much calculation to see that the larger proposal must cost at least double that amount, namely, ,£400,000, but Mr Howarth, the Resident Engineer, roughly estimates the extra cost at from £250,000 to .£270,000, assuming, however, it can be done for the lesser sum, interest and sinking fund at 5 per cent., plus, say £2OOO cost of maintenance, makes the total annual cost of Mr Hatrick's proposal £14,500. Against this outlay we ?mist offset the saving effected in cost of transit from wharf to store. At the present time importers pay from one shilling to Is 6d per ton from wharf to store, but, as the wharves at the basin proposed by Mr Hat rick would entail an average'of threequarters of a mile extra haulage, I think it is safe to estimate that carriage under the new conditions would not be less than one shilling and sixpence, all round. Now I will undertake to say that motor waggons would deliver from Castlecliff wharf clirec* t-i store at three shillings per ton, thus entailing an extra cost of one shilling and sixpence as against cartage under Mr Hatrick's proposal. If I am wrong in this "stimate, there is still the Castlecliff Railway .Company's present rate of one shilling and sixpence, plus, say, a like amount for cartage from their station to the importer's store, so that the total extra cost from, ship's side to store cannot be -.nore than one shilling and sixpence per ton. As to damage through extra handling, most of the goods would go direct into trucks with no more risk than at present. If we take Mr Hatrick's estimate of 50,00!) tons as the possible annual imports at Castlecliff—a liberal crtimate surely, when we remember that a large portion of imports would still go to the present wluuf —wo have the sum of £3750 as the inmial cost of landing at Castlecliff as against landing below the railway station, whilj the annual co3t of the Harbour proposed by Mr Hatrick, as before f/iown, would i e about £14,500, assuming 'he extra vo:ks to cost £250,000. Mr Hatrick make., a charming little estimate "f ihe value of reclaimed land, but the picture van ; shes upon brief consideration, first because aI! the space not required for the basin wr.uld be required for roads, wharf, stores, '.-to., and secondly, because no maciae engineer will endorse any serious curtai'rncnt cf *he tidal estuary. There is also a smuus enginering difficulty in connection with this site, namely, that the w*to* space i..too narrow, causing the ' asm to project largely into the present ihannal, making it very difficult to protect (r<on the effects of floods. The bottom ir the i being several feet below the depth of the channel, to allow of •'.easels llnating 'at low water, would constitute it a trap to catch the drift passing along the bottom of tha river, which for some years would bo considerable, in consequence of the di'ep dredging inducing a scour from a distance up stream. The propped la-'n at, Castlecliff is almost .free from this ob]ootion, tlie flood currents mi eiteriii'T it, but passing obliquely by its ontr.imo. Yo'ir space forbids that' I should Ins pass further iust now.—l am, etc., W. ii. ISAS3LTT.