WORK OF DESTRUCTION

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 69, 22 March 1915, Page 7

WORK OF DESTRUCTION

AT CAMPBELLS POINT. WESTERN FACE OBLITERATED. SPOIL POURED INTO THE SEA. "To Campbell's Point," reads a sign post at the corner of Gladstone Road and St. .Stephen's Avenue. Within a week or two the sign will no doubt be altered or taken down, for by that time Campbell's Point will no longer exist. During the past fortnight a big gang of men has been at work, demolishing the point at a frantic rate. Already the whole of the western face has disappeared, and thousands of tons of earth have been brought down. Just now the mien are working on a precipitous face, 70ft high. To destroy such a I headland is surprisingly easy work. ' The sandstone i_ hollowed out at the beach level, and a charge of dynamite brings great masses of material down into the sea. Quite half the spoil disappears into the water. To the layman —in this case a Pressman—-it seemed strange that there should be no stone or concrete wall to hold the spoil, for the tide must rip round Campbell's Point fairly strongly at times, and recollection- of "movements," even despite stone walls, in both Freeman's Bay and Mechanic*,' Bay suggested the idea that earth banks won't always stay just where they are put. Perhaps there has not yet been time to build a retaining wall all along the area of operations, or perhaps there is an explanation obvious to anyone, but a layman.

Meantime, as slated, about half the spoil appears to be running to waste, and the remainder is being shovelled into truck-, and run out on rails to the end of the embankment, newly formed, and intended to link up with Quay Street, thus completely blotting out St. George's Bay. TTic embankment in this case is provided with a stoneretaining wall, and the men arc tipping spoil from Campbell's Point into what is left of St. George's Bay, at the rate of 150 tons per day. Men working on the upper level of the face are at a dizzy height, operating with pick and crowbar, each stroke seeming to bring down an avalanche.

How Parnell people are going to bo provided with an outlet from Gladstone , Road to the new esplanade will be sometiling of a problem. A bridge or spiral will no doubt carry paiseengere from the waterfront level over six Hue 9of rails tip to a precipice "Oft high. Meantime, it is obvious that the point itself is doomed. The plans provide that tho cutting shall go back to within a chain and a-half of the late Sir John Logan Campbell's house, on the Kilbryde Estate, and at the present rate of progress it will be only a matter of a few weeks before the point has completely disappeared. Whether Judge's Bay—■ probably the most beautiful bay in tho Waitemata—is to go also remains to be seen. i