The Evening Star: with which are incorporated The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1892.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 219, 14 September 1892, Page 4

The Evening Star: with which are incorporated The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1892.

For the cauaa that Uolcs assistance, For tho ■wrong that needs resistance, For the futuro in tho distance, And th« good that we can do.

At yesterday's meeting the Harbour Board decided not to accept tenders for the extension of Queen -street Wharf, and to confine their attention *o repairing the eastern tee. In thus gracefully bowing to public opinion^ the Board has fully recognised its representative position. We do not agree with the strictures upon the Board which have been- made during the last fortnight That some mistakes have been made in wharf construction in the past, nobody denies. For these errors, or for the general plan of har bour works, the present Board is in no way responsible. If anybody is to blame for this general plan, it is the public, who have seen the plan adopted and carried out step by step, without raising any effective protest against it. It is easy enough to be wise after the event, it is equally easy—though not very fair—to lay the blame on any backs but our own.

What is now wanted is for the Board to reconsider the plan under which it has hitherto been working. The plan has had its good points, but the general opinion is that it has been followed quite long enough, and that the time has come for a change. The nature of the change required may not be very apparent. The Board itself does not see its way, at present, to adopt any plan of permanent works, though the members appear fully to realise the importance of bringing to an end a system which, if continued, will greatly injure the harbour, and entail a constantly increasing expenditure for the renewal of the temporary wharves already constructed or to be constructed.

We think the Board is acting wisely in staying its hand as regards new wooden wharves, and in confining its attention for the present to executing necessary repairs. For it is a wholesome rule to follow, that when you don't quite knowwhat is bestto be done, to do nothing till you do know. The Board is now in an easy and safe financial position, and can afford time to examine various plans, with the view of deciding upon that which, if not the absolute best, may be the best possible. We heartily congratulate the Board upon its decision, that, under no circumstances, will it resort to borrowing, either for permanent works or for anything else.

We do not join in the chorus of condemnation of the Board which it is the fashion in some quarters to indulge in. The present Board, as we have already said, is not responsible for the errors of its predecessors. That the members of the Board belong to that superfine class of people who consider themselves too wise to be taught, or too good to be mended, they have given us no reason for supposing. They, like the rest of us, are liable to mistakes, they may occasionally show a trifling disposition to wrongheadedness, but, as in yesterday's instance, they have shown that they are not unwilling to adopt a plan better than their own, if one can be pointed out to them.

This may be further said for them, that they give a good deal of ability and a good deal of time to conduct a most important department of public business without payment or even thanks, and without any private interests to serve. They certainly have done nothing to deserve either scorn or abuse, and if they had, it is at least due to them to tell them of their faults in a kindly, not to say gentlemanly, manner. There is always a danger in treating our private or public servants as it we thought them either fools or rogues, because if they have any spirit they will resent such treatment and leave our service; if they have none, they are not unlikely to earn the character we give them.

In coming to yesterday's wise decision, the Board has cleared the way for a new departure in the direction of bringing ships to the shore to discharge and load their cargoes. They very wisely decided to husband their resources in readiness for carrying out this very desirable object. They considered the formation of wharves of concrete absolutely unattainable by any funds likely to be at their disposal for years to come. One thing they may do, and which we think they ought to do, namely, to keep the Priestman dredgers at work deepening the most needed portions of the area between Queen-street Wharf aud the Railway Wharf until the return of the dredger from Melbourne:

That, we think, may be their first step. The second, we venture to suggest, ought to be the preparation of the shore end of the Queen-street Wharf, so that as the dredging alongside it is made deep enough, large steamers may lie alongside it inshore. A solid concrete wharf for this purpose, the Board rightly considered to be beyond our means for many a day. There is another method which may be within their power, that is—instead of renewing the piles at the shore end of Queenstreet Wharf as they decay, and replacing them by either piles of wood or iron—by cutting off the decayed piles below where they are subject to destruction by the teredos worm, and laying girders of kauri upon them. Upon these girders short iron cylinders, probably not much over i6ft in length,

might be bolted and braced with iron bolts, and upon the heads of these cylinders, the framework which now supports the roadway may be bolted,

By this mode the great expense of iron piles driven down to the rock would be avoided, because we understand that in drawing out the decayed wooden piles, it has been found that the teredos worm does not touch a pile below the mud line, and that the portion of the decayed piles in the mud is found to be perfectly sound and free from any trace of decay. These short iron cylinders might all be cast here, if there were not too great a margin between the home-made article and the imported one. In this way, the work of renovation would proceed in a sufficiently permanent form as the funds allowed.

In making these suggestions we have not the least intention of qualifying for the vacant post of engineer to the Board. We make no pretence to such superior engineering skill as we have seen expending itself in constructing temporary wooden wharves, and in studding our harbour with banks and shoals. We are doing no more than bringing a little common sense to bear on a difficulty which our harbour engineers have done so much to create and so little to solve.