SURVEY SHIP AT LYTTELTON

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26078, 3 April 1950, Page 6

SURVEY SHIP AT LYTTELTON

ESTUARY SOUNDINGS TO BE TAKEN

Five boats, two of them motor driven, will be engaged in taking soundings of the Sumner estuary ana approaches to-day and to-morrow. They are from the Royal Navy Survey ship Lachlan, which arrived at Lyttelton yesterday from Foveaux Strait. The survey is to determine the amount of silting which may be caused by drainage from the city. Two of the boats are equipped with echo-sounding devices; the others will work with sounding lines. Three boats will work outside the bar and the other two will work in the estuary. A party under Lieutenant W. J. Smith, R.N.Z.N., has been engaged during the last two weeks in preliminary work, including the laying of marks. Two of these marks are in the estuary and a third has been erected on Scarborough Hill. . <, x The Lachlan has just completed a partial survey of the coast, which included part of Foveaux Strait and the coast from Bluff to Cape Saunders. A large area wpich had never before been charted has been surveyed. Some discrepancies regarding the positions of certain landmarks, islands and shoals shown on existing charts have been discovered and corrected. The Lachlan is to sail from Lyttelton about Wednesday for Wellington where she will remain over Easter. She will then resume a survey of Cook Strait.