HOBSON BAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 185, 7 August 1930, Page 6

HOBSON BAY.

. I have read with interest the proposal to reclaim portions of Hobson Bay, but the question arises in my mind, why fill the area in? Filling in is probably going to cost from £400 to £1000 per acre, and I am certain is quite unnecessary. Most of Holland is below highwater mark, and a lot of it below low-watev mark, but the pastures in Holland are quite as dry as the usual pasture in New Zealand; furthermore, I and my sons, acting as Yates Reclamations, Ltd., have recently reclaimed 200 acres of mud flats in the Manukau Harbour. The centre of the mudflat is twelve feet deep at high tide. We have put a filling across the mouth of the creek for a length of ten chains, and have successfully blocked out the tide, ha ving-flood gates to control the drainage of the rain water. By treating Hobson Bay in this way instead of being a high, financial undertaking, involving £40,000 to £100,000, it would become a matter of a few thousands only, and this cheaper scheme is much .more likely to pass the vote of the ratepayers than the very much more expensive and unnecessary one involving filling. All that is required is a mudbank on each side of the sewer; it should be on each side, I think, so as not to endanger straining the concrete sewer with a concrete culvert and flood gate. E. YATES.