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(d) Improved and strengthened fendering at the ends of the
ordinary ferry berths,
(e) The deposit of additional rubble round the piles.
The cost of these improvements is estimated at $124,000.
The total cost of the new work, including the $6,200 excess cost of the additional works authorised at the end of 1932, amounts in round figures to $185,000, of which $46,000 falls to be expended in 1933 and $139,000 in 1934. The difference between the former sum and the sum of $139,000 asked for in the Resolution relating to 1933 is a revote of a portion of the sums authorised in previous resolutions but not expended in the years to which the Resolutions applied.
The total cost of the piers including the new works now proposed is estimated at $1,864,000.
I understand that during the last few months alarmist reports have been circulated in the Colony regarding the stability of the Ferry Piers. Honourable members will be glad to know that there is no basis for those rumours.
The Government took the precaution to send
one of its Engineers to America to study the latest designs for the working of Vehicular Ferries before embarking upon the present works and the piers have been designed with a full knowledge of ferry piers elsewhere. Admittedly we had no local experience of the berthing of vehicular ferries of the size of those now in use, and the design of the fendering had to be to some extent experimental. It would appear from experience that the provision of stronger buffers and fendering would have been advisable in the first instance, but this would of course have resulted in a more expensive structure involving the additional works now suggested. It is anticipated that the expenditure of the sums now asked for will obviate all causes of complaint in the future provided the vessels are handled with average skill.
I now move, Sir, "that this Council approves of the further expenditure of $139,000 on the Vehicular Ferry during the financial year 1933, which sum shall be met from a future loan and shall meanwhile be charged as an advance from the Surplus Balances of the Colony."