Operating

Again

Nauru's Unique Cantilever Loader Is Repaired

NAURU is a unique instance of an industry destroyed by war and re built with the promise of a greater degree of efficiency than before,” said the New Zealand representative on the Brit ish Phosphate Commission (Sir Albert Ellis), on his return to Auckland from Nauru recently.

“Operations at Nauru are very satis factory. Large quantities of phosphate are being shipped, at times at a rate equivalent to 700,000 tons a year. One arm of the cantilever was put into ser vice in July and is capable of loading 750 tons an hour. Repairs to the second arm should be completed in December.”

Twelve hundred technicians and lab ourers are toiling long hours on Nauru Island repairing the huge phosphate loading cantilever, severely damaged during the war (says a recent article in Auckland “Star”). One cantilever arm has been in operation since July, the other is expected to be working by the end of the year.

A German raider early in the war scored several direct hits on the struc ture and affected its stability. Later the Japanese occupied the island, used part of the structure as a foundation for a fort, and wrecked the rest.

When fully restored the cantilever will have a loading capacity of 1,500 tons an hour and will be capable of filling a 9.500-ton ship in one day. • NAURU provides, no natural shelter or practicable anchorage, and is fringed by a coral reef 400 ft. offshore. Orig inally the phosphate wa3 loaded into boats from short timber jetties over hanging the reef. The boats were towed to the ship.

Later, large steel, cantilever-type jetties were built extending from the beach to the reef edge. Phosphate on conveyor belts was discharged into lighters from which the ships were loaded. It was better, but still involved double handling and delay.

The main problem was a nautical one —to bring a large vessel close enough to the reef in water too deep to provide a safe anchorage and in a roadstead open to the weather, which, during five months of the year, is likely to change rapidly.

The depth of the anchorage in parts is over 200 fathoms and special moorings, believed to be the heaviest and deepest in the world, had to be laid. One by one the mooring difficulties were over come and a spider system of mooring lines, capable of instant release if bad weather sprang up, was devised.

The engineers then turned their atten tion to suitable loading equipment and in 1927, under the supervision of the Phos phate Commission’s engineer, Mr. F. F.

Christian, the present cantilever was started. Three years later it was com pleted—the only piece of machinery of its kind in the world. . Th e principal feature of the cantilever is a pair of immense swinging arms built on massive pillars near the edge of the reef. Through the centre of these arms run toughened rubber conveyor belts, which carry the phosphatic rock to the seaward end and load it through tele scopic chutes into a ship’s holds. The cantilever arms are fed from the shore by conveyor galleries.

The entire structure is over a quarter

of a mile in length, is electrically oper ated, the cantilever arms being controlled by operators in tiny cabins at the end of each arm. The loading capacity of the cantilever has been increased by fitting wider conveyor belts.

Chinese For Phosphate Islands

THE main labour force on the twin phosphate islands of Nauru and Ocean (180 miles apart) is Chinese.

A group of 830 Chinese from Hong Kong’s new territories arrived in October for a year’s service under the British Phosphate Commissioners in Nauru and Ocean Islands.

The group is the second to be recruited exclusively in the new Hong Kong terri tories. The demand for jobs is said to have been overwhelming because of the favourable reports given by earlier em ployees.

Applicants for positions had to prove beyond doubt that they were born in the new territories or that their families migrated there many years ago. They are paid eighty Hong K(s*ig dollars a month, have the opportunity of doubling this by overtime, are supplied with rations and clothing, and are given liberal benefits under their contracts.

The commissioners allow, the Chinese

the option of extending their contracts by a further year if they wish.

Phosphate From Makatea

IN the year 1947, French Oceania ex ported 208,316 tons of phosphate from Makatea Island to New Zealand.