TOPICS OF THE MONTH. 



247 



her to draw several inches more than 

 the " New Zealand," she is never likely 

 to be seen off Port Melbourne — until the 

 channel is deepened. 



It does not greatly matter to the Aus- 

 tralian Navy whether its greatest vessels 

 can enter Port Phillip or not, for West 

 Port and Jervis Bay, in addition to 

 Sydney and Hobart, are available in 

 Eastern Australiji But it does matter 

 enormously to Melbourne, Adelaide and 

 Fremantle, and her inability to enter is 

 a far more striking and spectacular 

 occurrence than if hundreds of mer- 

 chant steamers were obliged to enter 

 and leave these ports not fully loaded 

 The tendency is for larger and ever 

 larger vessels on the Atlantic ferr\', and 

 as these take up the service the smaller 

 boats in the American trade must be 

 taken off and seek other routes. Just 

 the other da\^ a small steamer, the 

 " Cufic," of some 8000 tons, touched 

 bottom in passing Port Phillip Heads, 

 and when such a thing can occur, ship- 

 owners will never send their large ves- 

 sels here. If, however, it was possible 

 for ships of, say, 20,000 tons to enter all 

 Australia's principal ports fully laden, 

 an immense impetus would be given to 

 commerce. Exporters are everywhere 

 raising their voices in bitter complaint 

 because the\- cannot get their produce 

 away. The whole Commonwealth is 

 suffernig because of the delay m deepen- 

 ing the channels of certain of our ports. 

 Mr. Watt realised this some time ago, 

 and addressed a memorandum to each 

 State, suggesting schemes for harbour 

 deepening, but nothing seems to have 

 come of it. Even his own State con- 

 tinues to proceed in most leisurely 

 fashion to deepen the channel at the 

 Heads. The depth there is now 37 feet, 

 but owing to what is called the " scend," 

 this depth is reduced by five or six feet 

 in smooth, and ten to twelve in rough 

 weather. When the depth between the 

 Heads is increased to the 42 ft. jjlanned, 

 It is calculated that the " scend " (the 

 rise and fall of a vessel in a seaway) 

 will be minimised, and vessels having a 

 draught of 35 or 36 ft. could pass 

 safely. At the present rate it will be six 

 years before the deepening is com- 

 jDleted. Only £^5000 a year is being ex- 



pended on this particular work. A good 

 deal more than that would be well 

 spent in speeding up this channel 

 deepening. The reason given for not 

 doing so is that it is no good com- 

 pleting that work unless at the same 

 time the berths are deepened at Port 

 Melbourne, and preparations finished 

 there for the accommodation of larger 

 ships. If that is so the Harbour Trust 

 had better sneed up also, and at once. 

 Melbourne, at an}' rate, is doing some- 

 thing, even if slowh- ; but Adelaide and 

 Fremantle do not seem to realise th^ 

 urgency of the need for deepening their 

 channels and preparing for the large- 

 ships which will ere long be visiting- 

 Australia. The inability of the new 

 flagship to enter these harbours will, let 

 us hope, provide the necessary incentive 

 to get to work at once. It is clear, for 

 instance, that the new White Star boat, 

 the " Cyramic," which draws 34 ft. 6 in., 

 will not be able to enter any commercial 

 port m Australia, fully loaded, save 

 Sydney and Hobart, and she is a small 

 vessel compared to some that might 

 come here. 



It is true that man>' of the greatest 

 ports in the world have no deeper chan- 

 nels at low water than that of Mel- 

 bourne, but the\- have far higher tides 

 than are experienced at Port Phillip, 

 as the following table shows: — 



