GENERAL.
The trade to several of the ports having considerably diminished, I have as vacancies occurred, been able to recommend reductions in the staff by 13 officers and men, which will effect an annual saving of £1,932, without in any way impairing the efficiency of the Department.
Having visited all the lighthouses on the Queensland coast, I find the sites upon which the structures are erected have been selected with great care and judgment, and the illuminating apparatus of the most modern description (excepting Cape Moreton, which, however, shows an excellent light), and supplied principally by the eminent lighthouse engineers, Messrs. Chance Bros., of Birmingham.
Additional 1st or 2nd order lights are not necessary at present, but in the Inner Route and Torres Strait much time is lost by the mail and other large steamers through having to anchor at night. Steam vessels are fast superseding sailing vessels, and their number passing along this coast increases every month, which will soon render additional lights necessary.
Pintsch's gas for beacons, buoys, and light-vessels is being adopted to a great extent in Europe, Asia, America, and the Suez Canal. In the colony of Victoria Pintsch's gas buoys are also in use. It possesses great advantages, owing to the cheapness of first cost and to the fact that no outlay is necessary for lightkeepers, as the light burns from six weeks to two months without attention. This system of lighting is admirably adapted for use in the Inner Route and for the shifting channels at the entrance to Moreton Bay. Several lightships with their crews have been recently dispensed with in France, and gas buoys substituted.
Another cheap and very effective light, the "Trotter Lindberg," is being introduced into the lighting system of Europe. This light is produced by burning paraffin or lythene oil in a specially designed apparatus. With the latter the light burns 14 days, and with the former 7 days without attention. A special feature of the apparatus is that an intermittent light is produced by the automatic action of a screen, which is made to revolve by the ascent of the heated air produced by the light. To mark the outer end of a cutting or narrow channel, the Trotter-Lindberg light might be utilised instead of a lightship. A lantern, with optical apparatus complete, costs about £100 to £125 in London.