Members of the Otago Harbour Board paid a visit of inspection to the reclamation works at Lake Logan yesterday morning. The members first visited the site of a couple of houses in Harbour terrace. These houses are of two stories, and the ground floors are well below the level of the road. When the Lake Logan reclamation area (on the other side of the houses) is raised to its full height, the bottom stories will be in a kind of valley—between Harbour terrace and the reclaimed area —and will be in danger of flooding when heavy rain occurs. The difficulty which has arisen will be considered by the board at a later date. Other properties in Harbour terrace whose back yards are below the proposed level of the reclamation area were also inspected. Unless some scheme of drainage of storm water can be evolved they too will be subjected to flooding when heavy rains occur. A visit was then made to the quarry end of the Lake Logan reclaimed area. Good progress has been made with the work of pumping in spoil from the harbour, and a large area has now been built up to the stipulated height. As a matter of fact an area greater than the Oval—which is of 25 acres—has now been completed, and only requires to be levelled off. On the city side a great deal of filling has yet to be done, but the land required for the Exhibition buildings is already practically completed, and the whole reclamation will be finished before the time required. The area need not be ready till January, 1925, so the board has some 15 mouths yet to prosecute its work. The sand pumped in is quickly settling down, and members had no difficulty in walking over sand which had been pumped in the previous night. This sand was remarkably firm.
A fruitful visit
According to Mr H.G. Wallace, whose address at Roxburgh on his visit to the fruit lands of the United States was most interesting, New Zealand is not the only place where the apple industry is badly organised (says our correspondent). In America it was described to him as being the worst organised industry in the State. As far as the quality of the fruit was concerned Mr Wallace considered Central Otago lost nothing by comparison. In apricots nothing be had seen or sampled compare with those grown in Otago. The wholesale sale of fruit was by car-load, representing 756 boxes. The cars were specially constructed for fruit traffic and provided the maximum ventilation. At 500 mile intervals they were re-iced, where extra cooling was necessary. He characterised the waggons provided by the New Zealand Railway Department as an insult to the industry and he wondered how much longer the grower was prepared to submit to them.
Port Chalmers Pansy
There was launched at Port Chalmers on Monday the fishing launch Pansy, designed and built by Mr S. Carey to the order of Mr J. Laing and Captain W. Waugh (late of the trawler Waitangi). The new launch is 40ft over all, beam 10ft 4in, draught 4ft. She has two self-emptying cock pits, and may be used for trawling or line fishing. The engine is a 14 h.p. Viking, built in Port Chalmers by Messrs Walter Morgan (Ltd.). The trawl winch, also made by the same firm, is driven from the main engine. The trials were very successful, the boat developing a greater speed than was anticipated. Both the local firms have been congratulated on their workmanship. The boat was christened by Miss Nellie Waugh. — ODT, 1.11.1923
