DESCRIPTION OF OAMARU HARBOUR. The Port of Oamaru, situated in the bay to the north of Cape Wanbrow, originally an open roadstead, has been improved and rendered a safe harbour by the construction of a breakwater carried northward from the east head of Oamaru Bay, and a rubble mole carried eastward from the west shore of the bay towards the breakwater, enclosing a basin of nearly sixty acres, leaving an entrance at the north-east angle of 500 ft. in width. The breakwater, built with concrete blocks, was completed in January of this year, being 1,850 ft. in length and 36ft. in width. The mole, which when completed will be 1,720 ft. in length, is now extended 1,450 ft. from the shore. The basin enclosed is now perfectly safe, and vessels lie in comparatively still water. The wharf accommodation consists of the Macandrew Wharf, the Normanby Wharf, and the Cross Wharf, together having a berth frontage of 1,250 ft., suitable for vessels up to 800 tons register and drawing up to 16ft. In addition to these wharves, which are built of concrete, the first of a series of pile-wharves is now being erected to the west of the Normanby Wharf, to have 600 ft. of berth-frontage, and on each side of the wharf the water is being deepened to 24ft. at low water, and every arrangement as to moorings and other'appliances is being made to suit vessels of the largest class. The Board's new dredger has been at work for some months deepening at this point and at the Macandrew Wharf, and the progress made at the new wharf is such as to warrant the hope that the s.s. " Blderslie," a new meat-freezing vessel of 3,800 tons, being built for the Oamaru trade, will be berthed alongside the wharf in August next. During the construction of the mole a large quantity of spoil from the quarry has been utilized in reclaiming shallow parts of the shore round the harbour; sixteen acres of ground for building-sites, and road and railway approaches, having thus been formed.

OAMARU HARBOUR WORKS SKETCH PLAN