✨ Port Officer Reports
NEW ZEALAND
GOVERNMENT GAZETTE
PROVINCE OF CANTERBURY.
Published by Authority.
All Public Notifications which appear in this Gazette, with any Official Signatures, are to be considered as Official Communications made to those persons to whom they may relate, and are to be obeyed accordingly.
By His Honor’s Command,
EDWARD JOLLIE,
Provincial Secretary.
VOL. XII.] MONDAY, JUNE 26, 1865. [No. XXXVI.
Provincial Secretary’s Office,
Christchurch, June 21, 1865.
HIS Honor the Superintendent directs the publication of the following Reports of the Port Officer, on the Rivers and Harbours of the West Coast of the Province of Canterbury.
EDW. JOLLIE,
Provincial Secretary.
Hokitika, April 5, 1865.
SIR,—
I have the honor to report upon the information I have gathered, both from personal observation and the local experiences of persons qualified to give an opinion upon the nature of this bar harbor, as well as upon the steps I have taken for facilitating its entrance as much as possible.
The River Hokitika is situated on the West Coast of the Province of Canterbury in lat., by obs., 42° 41 min. 80 sec. south; longt., by chron., 170° 59 min. 15 sec. east; and is navigable for vessels of a light draught of water for the distance of one and a-half miles from its entrance. There is good anchorage from two to three miles off its mouth in from eight to ten fathoms, dark sand and good holding ground. Should vessels intending to take the bar, have to anchor to await daylight or high water, they should bring up a little to the southward of the Port, for whereas there is usually a southerly current in the offing, a very strong northerly set will often be found within the break on the bar.
A constant heavy westerly swell rolls in on this portion of the coast, and although the prevailing gales blow from the N.W., S.W. and S.E., enabling vessels to lay well off shore and obtain an offing, the masters of vessels should not neglect watching the weather carefully, and in the event of its threatening, put to sea in good time. The heaviest break of the sea is immediately outside the bar in two fathoms water. The bar itself is constantly shifting in direction and varying in depth; after a heavy fresh the river runs straight out to sea, and during the interval of moderate and fine weather, the sea piles up either the northern or southern spit and makes a series of middle banks, forming one, two, or three channels as the case may be, averaging only a depth of from twelve to eighteen inches at low water.
It is high water full and change at Hokitika bar nine hours thirty-nine minutes,
Vol. 12.—No. 36
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Canterbury Provincial Gazette 1865, No 36
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🏗️ Port Officer Report on Hokitika River and Harbour
🏗️ Infrastructure & Public Works21 June 1865
Hokitika River, Harbour, Navigation, Bar, Anchorage
- Edward Jollie, Provincial Secretary