21

H.—150

In 1907 the Board also purchased some land at Cape Foulwind, and between that date and the end of 1912 laid out and formed a pleasure-ground, including tennis-courts, football-grounds, and grounds for other games and sports, and bathingsheds. On these works the Board has expended, under the heading of " Cape Foulwind Railway Reserve," the sum of £2,986 2s. 2d. This work is in no sense a harbour-work. The total expenditure on these two items is £9,229 14s. 4d. The £200,000 Loan. 62. The authority for this loan is contained in the Westport Harbour Board Loan Act, 1908. In support of this Bill, and prior to its being passed, plans of the proposed works and specifications of two dredges were submitted to the Government about the 16th March, 1908. Such plans were approved by His Excellency the Governor on the 7th July, 1908, and approval was also given of the purchase of two suction dredges of 1,000-ton hopper capacity. Upon sheet 1 of these plans there appears a note of the estimated cost as under : — " Estimated cost — £ " 406,800 tons of stone to be used in extension of east and west breakwaters for a length of 600 ft., at ss. a ton 101,500 " Two 1,000-ton hopper suction dredgers as per specification, to dredge to a depth of 40 ft. below water, at £40,000 each . . .. .. . . .. 80,000 " Contingencies, 10 per cent., say .. .. .. 18,500 "Total .. .. .. .. ..£200,000." The plan on which the above estimate appears shows an extension of 600 ft. on each breakwater. The cost per foot of the extensions works out at £84 lis. Bd. (excluding the items of contingencies and dredgers). The diagram marked " A " in the appendix shows the position of the breakwaters and the proposed extension. In 1891 the last 35 ft. of the western breakwater cost £119 per foot (the previous 230 ft. having cost £117 per foot), and the cost of the last 70 ft. of the eastern breakwater, which at the time was only a half-tide wall, was £42 per foot. This wall was afterwards raised to the height of the western breakwater, but, so far as your Commissioners know, the cost of the raising was not tabulated, and could not be obtained. In 1891 the cost per ton of stone in the western breakwater was about 6s. 9d. per ton, and in the eastern wall 9s. 4d. In 1908 the cost per ton of stone probably would have been increased by a general increase in wages, and by the fact that stone was more difficult to obtain in the quarries. The actual length of wall constructed out of the loan of 1908 from May, 1909, to October, 1913, has been 480 lineal feet on the eastern wall, and none at all on the western. The cost of this portion of the eastern wall has been £98,824, or at the rate of £206 per lineal foot, and at a cost per ton of stone of 9s. 4d. The total expenditure for the same period on the breakwaters out of this loan, including repairs to railway and plant, amounted to £102,848. The following extracts are from the Engineer's reports in the balance-sheets for the different years during which the Board has been constructing the breakwaters out of the £200,000 loan :— Balance-sheet, 1909. " Eastern Breakwater. —This breakwater has now been extended to within 200 ft. of a point opposite the end of the west breakwater . -. . " Quarries. —During the year 45,104 tons of quarry-material have been delivered at the east and west breakwaters and Cattle Wharf siding, at an average cost of 3s. 9jd. per ton, which includes the cost of developing Nos. 2 and 3 quarries and stonework at esplanade." If the above figures are correct, the cost of 45,104 tons at 3s. 9jd. would amount to £8,551. The cost shown in the balance-sheet for that year of the " eastern