SILTING UP OF HARBOUR

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21084, 8 February 1934, Page 14

SILTING UP OF HARBOUR

♦ ALLEGATIONS DENIED REPLY TO CRITICISM A denial that the upper reaches ol the harbour were silting up was given by the chairman (Mr W. G. Gallagher) at the meeting of Ibe Lyttelton Harbour Board yesterday.

In his report to the board, Mr Gallagher said that his experience on the board had shown that as a public body members welcomed reasonable criticism, but there were recently puij. lished some rather extraordinary statements, including one to the effect that boat owners were becoming alarmed at the restriction of the area for sailing caused by continual silting of the upper reaches of the harbour. "It was stated that it is now only possible to reach the jetty at Governor's Bay at high tide in a shallow draught boat. It was suggested that these effects were due to the system of dredging adopted by the Harbour Board," said Mr Gallagher. "As these statements have received wide publicity I think it well to set out the true position. "I have been shown by the. board's engineer, Mr P. W. Fryer, plans of soundings taken in Governor's Bay in the years 1849, 1903, 1927, and 1934 which indicate that during the whole of that time there .has been no change in the depth of water in Governor's Bay. On January 24 I visited Governor's Bay in the board's launch Ruahine, in company with Messrs H. Hoiland, M.P., and H. M. Chrystall, members of the board, and our secretary and engineer, a little after high water, and saw some soundings taken. At the end of the upper jetty there was then eight feet six inches of water, inthe middle of the bay half-way between the two jetties nine feet six inches, and at the end of the lower jetty 11 feet. These figures agreed with the soundings shown in the plans mentioned above after deducting the height of the tide as given by the automatic tide gauge, and I am quite satisfled that there is no ground for the statements published. "From Governor's Bay we proceeded to the jetty at Charteris Bay, by way of the passage between Quail Island and the mainland, and found that the board's big launch met with no difficulty in navigating this part of th» harbour." The report was adopted.