of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



33 



the aid of pneumatic drilling plant and explosives. The inner quay wall 

 of the breakwater has been constructed of concrete foi a length of 360 feet, 

 800 square yards of the lower layer of concrete for the roadway have been 

 laid on this quay, a length of 200 feet of the South Quay Wall has been 

 completed, and short sections of the breakwater parapet have been formed. 

 During the severe storms of the early Spring und again in the Autumn 

 the sea broke over the breakwater where the parapet is still unformed 

 and flooded the new basin, causing damage to plant and interrupting the 

 operations. 



iThe estimated cost of the scheme was originally £24,100, towards 

 which a free grant of £10,000 ami an interest bearing loan of £12,000 were 

 to be provided from the Development Fund, and a free grant of £2000 

 was promised from the funds of the Board. Prior to the commencement 

 of the work this estimate was revised and raised to £26,488. For a con- 

 siderable period after work was commenced it appeared that this sum 

 would be sufficient for the completion of the scheme, but owing to the 

 extraordinary increases that have taken place in wages and in the price of 

 materials within the last two years, the expenditure on the work, although 

 most carefully administered, has considerably exceeded the estimate. 

 Revised estimates based on current rates at the end of 1917 showed that 

 the total cost of the scheme would be about £37,800. As the Town Council 

 were without funds to meet the extra cost they made application to the 

 Development Commissioners for further financial assistance to enable 

 them to complete the scheme, and in the special circumstances the Treasury 

 on the recommendation of the Commissioners agreed to provide an ad- 

 ditional advance of £5500 by way of free grant and £5500 by way of 

 interest bearing loan from the Development Fund, while the Board agreed 

 in like manner to make a further free grant of £2000 from their funds, the 

 total advances amounting to £37,000. 



During the year payments of £2000, being an instalment of the original 

 loan, and £1168, 7s. 3d. of free grant, were made to the Council from the 

 Development Fund, and payment of the free grant, amounting to £2000, 

 was made from the funds of the Board. 



Banff Harbour. — This Improvement Scheme includes the deepening 

 of the inner harbour basin by the removal of rock and soft material, and 

 the repair of the pier and quay walls. The work of excavation is now 

 almost completed, 1243 cubic yards of rock and 1630 cubic yards of soft 

 material being removed during this year. On three separate occasions 

 work was suspended and water admitted to the harbour basin to enable 

 herring drifters to be launched from the adjoining shipyard and taken 

 out of the harbour. To effect this the upper part of the cofferdam had 

 to be removed and replaced and the basin pumped out each time, the 

 cost of the operations being recovered from the owners of the vessels 

 released. 



The masonry quay walls surrounding the inner harbour are very old 

 and are founded on the surface of the underlying rock. "When the rock 

 in the basin was excavated it proved to be of such a friable nature that 

 the exposed faces under the walls had to be faced with concrete, carried 

 up in front of the masonry to cope level. The Engineer reported that this 

 additional work would cost about £4000. As the Trustees were without 

 funds to meet this unforeseen expenditure, inflated by the prevailing 

 prices, they applied to the Board for further financial assistance. In the 

 circumstances the Board agreed to make an additional free grant of £2750 

 towards the cost of the scheme, on condition that the balance was provided 

 by the Trustees. 



This work is now in progress, and by the end of the year a length of 180 

 feet of quay wall and the underlying rock had been faced with concrete. 



