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As early as the year 1854—only about six years after the foundation of the settlement of Otago a petition was presented to the First Session of the Otago Provincial Council, setting forth the inconvenience and loss to the mercantile community caused by the landing of goods at Port Chalmers, and the desirability of all vessels coining up the harbour to a point as near Dunedin as possible. About the same time the General Government was petitioned to remove the custom house from Port Chalmers to Dunedin, which request was accordingly granted. The superintendent of the province of Otago was requested by resolution of the council in 1855, to place a sum of money on the estimates providing for the survey of the upper harbour, and requesting his honour to direct the pilot to bring up all vessels as near to Dunedin as possible. Till December, 1850, there was no harbour-master for the port, the duties being performed by Mr. Logie, the collector of customs. Captain Thomson was, however, appointed harbour-master at the above date, and commenced his duties on the 16th of January, 1860. The control of the port was vested in the provincial council of Otago, which body voted money from time to time for the construction of jetties, and an effort was made to dredge certain channels so as to permit vessels to approach the settlement of Dunedin. About 1866, a dredge, the “New-Era,” was procured, and for several years she was .employed in cutting various channels, several of which, however, were afterwards shown to have silted up. Meantime the city of Dunedin bad developed considerably in point of population, and the business of the port bad enormously increased. It was not, however, till early in the year 1873 that an agitation was commenced among the most influential citizens, with a vie\v to have the control of the harbour vested in a board of trustees, whose special duty should be the efficient management, and, above all, the development of the port. The first public meeting having such objects in view was held on the 4th of March, 1873. Mr. E. B. Cargill being in the chair, when Messrs. Fish (mayor of Dunedin), Pencil (mayor of Port Chalmers), E. B. Cargill, J. Kattray. P. C. Neill, J. A. Walcott. J. Miller, G. G. Russell, J. McNeil, and H. Tewsley were appointed a committee to promote the formation of a harbour trust and devise a plan of providing the necessary endowment. Many meetings were held to further these objects, and on the 1st of May, 1873, the committee discussed the subject with certain members of the provincial council, the result being that the appointment of a board with power to assume sole control of the harbour was recommended. At a public meeting of citizens a week later, Mr. H. S. Fish, M.P.C., was requested to take steps to secure the passing of a provincial council ordinance providing under “The Harbour Board Act of 1870” for the constitution of a board. Owing, however, to the short session of the council in that year, nothing was done, and six months later—September 4th, 1873—an influential public meeting took place, when resolutions affirming the desirability of harbour improvements, and particularly the deepening of the channel so that vessels might come up to Dunedin, were passed. A sub-committee, consisting of Messrs. Robert Gillies, J. Davie, H. McNeil, H. Tewsley, J. Rattray, and K. Ramsay, was appointed to thoroughly investigate the matter and place the results before the public. Four engineers—Messrs. J. T. Thomson, W. X. Blair, J. McGregor. and G. M. Barr—generously placed their services at the disposal of the committee without fee or reward, and after the lapse of a reasonable time the engineers’ reports were available. In March, 1874, the sub-committee circulated a final report on the subject in the shape of a pamphlet of twenty-seven pages, containing their recommendations and the full text of the engineers’ reports, together with plans and diagrams bearing on the subject. On the 27th of April, 1874, another public meeting of citizens expressed itself on the necessity of increased facilities for the transit of goods, suggesting that the best way to accomplish this object would be by deepening the channel, and demanding that every vessel entering the heads should be brought up to the city, if possible. The effect of this agitation was shown in the ordinance passed by the provincial council constituting the Otago harbour board, and the Governor’s assent having been gazetted on the 30th of June. 1874, the first members were duly elected. The board held its first meeting on the 6th day of July, 1874, his honour the superintendent in the chair, with Messrs. D. Reid, A. Mercer, H. Tewsley, H. McNeil, J. Davie, C. S. Reeves, A. Thomson, and K. Ramsay. Mr. (now the Hon. Sir) Robert Stout, who was the first solicitor to the harbour board, acted for a short time as the board’s secretary. Mr. J. L. Gillies being appointed on the 15th of September, 1874; and the first engineer. Mr. D. L. Simpson, was appointed on the 1st December of the same year. The board at once took in hand the increase of wharf accommodation, and a contract was let before the end of the first year to extend the Rattray Street jetty, 1.140 feet, at a cost of over £12.500. As only vessels of twelve feet draught could come up to Dunedin wharf, the board deemed it advisable to order an additional dredge, which cost nearly £20,000. Dredging operations were energetically proceeded with for a number of years, during which time Dunedin had to be satisfied with the coming and going of smaller craft only, larger vessels stopping at Port Chalmers. The proposal to construct the Victoria channel was brought forward about the year 1877, and this great and important work is still in progress. A depth of sixteen feet at low water is now’ secured, so that vessels drawing twenty feet to twenty-one feet of water are now regularly brought up to Dunedin with the tide. The Victoria channel is to be deepened to a depth of twenty feet at low water and widened from eighty feet to one hundred feet. From statistics compiled by the late Mr. J. L. Gillies and issued on the 3rd of October, 1893, it appears that the navigable channel, from the entrance of the harbour to Dunedin, is fourteen miles and a half in length. The entire area of the harbour is 12,750 acres, the depth of water ranging from nothing to sixty feet at low water. There is good and safe anchorage channels being marked by buoys and beacons, starboard, red, port, and black, from the heads to Dunedin. At the entrance of the harbour is the Tairoa lighthouse, which is under the control of the marine department, and is situate on the east side of the entrance. There is a fixed red light and two leading lights, one red and one white. On the end of the mole, which has been run out to a distance of 4,100 feet, there is a green light. The staff of the establishment at the heads consists of a signal-master, resident pilot, and a boat’s crew. The signal station is connected with Port Chalmers and Dunediu by telephone. The tug service in the harbour includes the screw-tug, “Plucky,” of 45 nominal horse-power, and the paddle-tug, “Koputai,” of 120 nominal horse-power. Port Chalmers is six miles and a half from the beads, the ruling depth of water at the entrance being twenty-four feet at low water. Inside the entrance, the new channel has a depth of nineteen feet at low water, from thence to Port Chalmers the depth is twenty-two feet. There is one lightship at the new channel and a guide light at Pulling Point. In Koputai Bay there is good anchorage and there are also mooring buoys. The wharves connected with the railway at the port have over 4,000 feet of berthage, the depth of water ranging from fifteen feet to twenty-two feet at low water. The sheds on the wharves belong to the railway department and to private firms. The Port Chalmers graving dock is under the control of the Otago dock trust; its measurements are 328 feet long, sixty-eight feet wide above and forty-one feet below, the width at the entrance being fifty feet, and the depth on the sill at ordinary tides seventeen feet and at high spring tides nineteen feet. Attached to the dock is a workshop containing engineering tools and a steam-hammer suited for the heaviest class of work. There are also sheer legs capable of lifting eighty tons. Any sized vessel up to the limit draught of water can be berthed. From Port Chalmers to Dunedin by the Victoria channel is a distance of eight miles, a half-tide wall five miles in length, and 14,250 feet of walling round endowment and reserves for basins having been constructed; 4,601 feet of the latter have been faced with wharves, having depths of water ranging from twelve feet to seventeen feet at low tide. Vessels drawing nineteen feet of water can load and discharge cargo at the Dunedin wharves, and can be berthed at present up to 375 feet in length. To give further depth and length is only a question of easy dredging, the bottom being very soft silt. On the Dunedin wharves there are twelve large transit sheds for receiving goods landing or for shipment, free of charge. There are eight steam-cranes with a lifting power ranging from two tons to ten tons. The harbour board has issued loans as follows:—In 1874, £250,000 at six per cent, was authorised, the endowment security being 100 acres, all under water. In 1881, there was a further loan of £100,000 at six per cent., and in 1882-3, another of £200,000. In 1885, it was resolved to provide £150,000 additional to complete the board’s works that were necessary, and to provide for consolidation of all previous loans into one. A “Consolidation Loan Act” was passed in 1885. The total indebtedness of the harbour board on bonds, is £687,400. The revenue, which in 1874 stood at £14,000, had increased in 1803 to £42,840, and in 1807 to £61,950. The harbour board possesses a very large area of reclaimed land, twenty-seven acres of which have been leased, returning over £8.000 per annum. On this land some of the finest buildings in Duncdin are erected. In addition to the above there are thirty-five acres on the foreshore at Dunedin, and thirteen acres at Ravensbourne, available for lease. There are 284 acres of partially reclaimed foreshore at Dunedin, fourteen acres at Burke’s, and twelve acres at Shag Hay. To apply these for leasing purposes a further small outlay would be required, but as settlement and trade do not at present call for it, they are being filled up gradually by deposits from the levelling of sites and the digging out of foundations. The board has 580 acres at the north of the beads, now let with house and out-buildings, on an annual tenancy of £35 per annum. There are also twenty acres of land purchased for quarrying purposes at Kilgour’s Point, half an acre at the signal station, Port Chalmers, and four acres at Tairoa Heads, where the pilot station is located. Mr. JAMES TAYLOR MACKERRAS, who for many years has been a prominent member of the Dunedin Harbour Hoard, and who is further referred to in this volume under “Merchants,” is founder and senior partner in the firm of MacKerras and Hazlett. He was born in 1827 in Aberdeen. Scotland, and was educated at Grantown, Inverness-shire, where he commenced his mercantile career as a boy in a country store; after five years’ business experience in London, be came ‘out to Geelong, Victoria, in September, 1851. Mr. MacKerras went into commercial life in that town and continued in business till coming to Otago in 1862. Arriving in Port Chalmers in that year with a partner, he established the well-known business which has for so long been conducted under the style of MacKerras and Harlett. He was first member elected to the Dunedin harbour board in 1885, since which time be has sat continuously in that body, and has been chairman of the finance committee for some years, and generally has used his influence and abilities to further the interests of the-port. For many years be has been an active member of the chamber of commerce, and was its president for the year 1884-5. In local companies, Mr. MacKerras has greatly assisted in the development of the industries of Otago. notably as a director of the Kaitangata Railway and Coal company. Ltd., since its inception, as well as filling a like capacity in many other companies. Mr. MacKerras was married in 1860 to a daughter of Mr. Murdo Jaffray, of Budget Cawdor, Nairnshire, Scotland, and has six daughters and a son. Mr. WILLIAM MIRAMS, Secretary and Treasurer of the Otago Harbour Board, was born in 1840 in London, where he was educated and brought up to mercantile life. He is a son of the Rev. James Mirams of the Congregational Church, who came out with his family to Melbourne in 1857. Mr. Mirams came to Otago in 1866, and joined the firm of Walter Bell and Co., which business was afterwards merged in that of Messrs.Guthrie and Larnach, in which he continued as accountant and cashier. In 1884, Mr. Mirams joined the harbour board as accountant in the dues department, which position he held till the end of 1886. when, on the illness of the late Mr. Gillies, he became acting-secretary and was appointed secretary in March, 1898. Mr. Mirams was married in 1868 to a daughter of the late Mr. B. Houghton of Dunedin. and has six sons and six daughters. |
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