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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]

Tides And Shipping

Tides And Shipping.

The tides in Otago Harbour are not marked by any serious rise or fall. At Otago Heads the ordinary rise at springtides is from four to seven feet, but rarely so much as eight feet. At Part Chalmers the rise is from three and a half to seven feet, and at Dunedin from four to six feet and three-quarters. The tidal water, being spread over a large area, does not maintain so high a level near the upper end of the harbour as at the Heads.

The Lighthouse, Taiaroa Heads.Morris, photo.

The Lighthouse, Taiaroa Heads.Morris, photo.

The harbour works at Dunedin and Port Chalmers are largely due to the energy of the Otago Harbour Board, which was constituted in 1874. The Harbour Board has deepened the shorter of the two channels leading from Port Chalmers to Dunedin, dredged a large portion of the Upper Harbour, and reclaimed or proposes to reclaim perhaps 500 acres along the foreshore. Ships drawing twenty feet and more can now be brought up to Dunedin city wharves to discharge and load. These changes have naturally given a great impetus to the commercial prosperity of Dunedin.

The dock at Port Chalmers is under the control of the Otago Dock Trust, a body which is entirely distinct from the Otago Harbour Board. The dock is 328 feet page 51 long, forty-one feet broad on the floor, and the depth of water on sill (at springtide) is seventeen feet and a half. During 1901, fifty-eight vessels, totalling nearly 50,000 tons, entered the dock. Connected with the Otago dock is a steam hammer and forge, with all the appliances necessary for the repair and refitting of vessels; an eighty-ton shearlegs has been erected for heavy lifts. In addition to the graving dock there is a patent slip in use to take up smaller vessels. The wharfage accommodation provided at Dunedin amounts to 5417 lineal feet. This includes six deep water berths twenty feet at low water spring tides, with ample room and depth for swinging large vessels. The works now being completed provide an additional deep-water berth (twenty-two feet at low water); and the shed accommodation was increased during 1901 by 14,000 feet.

At Port Chalmers the total wharfage is 5100 lineal feet. There is a depth of thirty-four feet at the entrance of Otago Harbour, low water spring tides; the lower harbour, to Port Chalmers, will allow for a draught of twenty-four to twenty-five feet, and the upper harbour to Dunedin will admit of twenty-one feet draught.

The last shipping returns available for Dunedin give a striking proof of the commercial activity and enterprise of the province. In 1901, 561 vessels entered the port of Dunedin and 559 went out; as against 522 arrivals and 527 departures in 1900. Dunedin now claims shipping to the amount of 61,517 tons—sixty-eight steamers of 47,454 tons, and forty-seven sailing vessels of 14,063 tons; as against a total of 38,902 tons—six-one steamers and forty-seven sailing ships—in 1900. It must be remembered that, as the headquarters of the Union Steam Ship Company, Dunedin claims about fire-sixths of the total steam transport of the colony, not to mention one-third of the sailing vessels. The growth of the Union Company has been one of the most remarkable phenomena in the history of colonial commerce. Starting in 1875, the Union Steam Ship Company first bought out the New Zealand Steam Shipping Company, which had for some years done most of the coastal trade. In 1878 they took over McMeckan, Blackwood and Co.'s intercolonial fleet, and then possessed eleven steamers with a tonnage of 5500 tons. In 1902 the 100th steamer, owned by the company, was completed, bringing the present total up to fifty-seven vessels, with a capacity of 92,600 tons. The company's yearly consumption of coal is 250,000 tons, and the fact that the expenses in 1902, in Sydney alone, came to a quarter of a million sterling, may give some idea of the magnitude of the company's operation, and the part it plays in Australian commerce.