DREDGING OF LYTTELTON HARBOUR.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9176, 6 August 1895, Page 3

DREDGING OF LYTTELTON HARBOUR.

TO THB EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —By the newspaper report of the last meeting of the Lyttelton Harbour Board, the question of acquiring a suitable dredging plant was referred to the Harbour Improvement Committee. Now, sir, if the Harbour Board are going to continue dredging, "as I thiuk most people will agree is necessary," I think they should adopt some different mode of disposing of the mud which is being raised. It is now a. good many years that dredging operations have been carried on inside and around the moles, and the depth of water has been increased, I believe something like 12ft or 15ft. All the mud raised to allow of this iucrease of water has been dumped on a #cry limited area in Camp Bay, as well as some thousands of tons of sand Jbaljast discharged *,li-*re by, ballast lighters, and yet the depth of water in this small bay remains about the same as before a single ton of mud or sand was discharged there. The question is where is it all going to, as we know it must rest somewhere. My opinion is, and a great many agree with mc, tuat it is all being washed back into She harbour by thehe_vy ground swell, and is slowly but surely filling up the harbour. The entrance to Furau Bay is now much shallower than it was before!the dredging was commenced. Then, again, from Church Bay toward Parson's Rocks in former days oyster dredging was carried on, when the bottom was very hard and shelly ; now for years it has been soft mud, which I believe has been washed over the former hard bottom. Again, in Corsair Bay, lam told on good authority that the water is something like six feet shallower in about the last ten years, and I have no doubt that in other parts of the harbour it will be found similar changes are taking place, and all from the same cause, as had all the mud aud sand that has been put in Camp Bay remained there it would now be dry land. Now, when the Board is contemplating having a new dredging plant, perhaps it would be worth their while to consider whether it would not be possible to procure barges of light draft of water, so as to allow them to deposit their loads on the mud flats at the Head of the Bay. In Manson's Bay there is an area of aboutone mile wide by two miles long, which is entirely dry at ordinary low tide, and if the Board had only put the mud there instead of in the other place, I do not think it would shift far, and then they would be reclaiming.laud at the same time. However, if the Board continue putting the dredgings in the old place it will soon be a matter of not only deepening the water about the wharf and moles, but .right to the Heads. I wonder what would be thought of a farmer who commenced to deepen a ditch, and after having deepened the end farthest from the outlet, put the spoil in that outleb. Well, to my way of thinking, that is just what has been done in Lyttelton Harbour. Hoping some abler pen than mine will tike this important matter up. — Yours, &c., ' . Robeet Anderson. Charteris Bay, July 30th, 1895.