CHANNEL CUT TO SEA

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22197, 14 September 1937, Page 8

CHANNEL CUT TO SEA

KARAMEA RIVER FINDS NEW MOUTH NAVIGABLE FOR FIKST TIIIB SINCE EARTHQUAKE ITHE PRESS Special Serrtce.l WESTPORT. September 13. ; A flood in the Karamea river dur- $ fng the week-end has caused the , improvement scheme to bear fruit much earlier than was expected. During Sunday the swollen river cut a channel to the sea through the old j mouth a mile north of where it has I been flowing into the Otomohana lagoon. The new channel has a depth of 12 feet of water at high tide which means the river is once more navigable by small coastal vessels of the size that previous!? traded to Karamea. Until last week-end the river had been free from floods for an unusually long period, and during that | time the construction of the stop j banks and training wall on the north | side of the river has been pushed j forward with all possible speed. When this flood came the scheme was fortunately sufficiently advanced to direct the main course of the river to the sea along its old route. . Residents of Karamea are jubilant at what has occurred, and Mr C. Bruce Halley. assistant-engineer to the Public Works Department interviewed bv telephone this evening, said that he was Phased to be able to report that the first test the partly completed scheme had beea put to had had such satisfactory w The 1929 earthquake, by shaking large quantities of material into the up-country reaches of the rwe£ caused the mouth to silt up rapidfc; and in a short time the former channel to the sea became blocked and water began to flow south ms» the Otomohana lagoon. This aeeet erated still further the speed at which silt was deposited in tint portion of the river bed near Karamea This caused the river bottom to rise, so that every fresh resulted in the townships of Karamea and Market Cross being flooded. Now that the river has scoured a deep channel to the sea along its m course, and because of the new stop banks, the flood danger has practieally disappeared.