Repairing the Kaipara.

Progress, Volume V, Issue 6, 1 April 1910, Page 187

Repairing the Kaipara.

In some illustrations of the present issue we show the shipwrights working at the ' ' Kaipara in the bottom of the Dock of the Auckland Harbour Board It is a sufficiently commonplace business from the point of view of the man accustomed to life in the neighbourhood of the great dockyards of the Old Country. But here it is in reality a spectacle unique and suggestive. When the direct steamers ran into greatness it was objected by the critics, who are always timid, that their repair in case of accident would lie the occasion of the owners' undoing. Now here is a dock in which a very serious damage is being repaired with cheerful promptness. It is good news for the merchant .shipping of the Dominion and for the ships of the King's Navy also. What is more, there is a touch of two local colours that do not usually blend well. The dock is Auckland enterprise, but the contractors for the repairs are Messrs. Hutchison and Campbell, of Wellington, and Adams, of Auckland. The combine has distinguished itself by effacing al l the other contractors, and has shown its mettle by the manner in which it has overcome the difficulty presented by the absence of rolling machinery for the plates it requires for its work. It has just managed with jacks and blocks. This is the spirit of the early pioneers in the midst of modern appliances. The pioneers may be thought to have had the best of the deal, for they had to- improvise everything. But, on the other hand, the men of to-day, when they have to improvise — a thing which few of them ever think of doing — have to find something to do the work of very big machinery. On the whole, the business about the "Kaipara" in the Auckland Dock is decidedly interesting, and, as we have said, suggestive. i