THE WAIMAKARIRI.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1265, 19 July 1864, Page 4

THE WAIMAKARIRI.

TO THE EDITOR OF TIIB LYTTELTON TIMES. Sir,—lt is not my intention to reply to the per»onal attack on myself which appeared in last Thursday's Press. The public are clear-sighted enough to be able to distinguish between fair criticism and the outpouring of personal malice. I shall therefore, on this subject, only say that I attended the Kaiapoi meeting not as a professional man seeking employment, as insinuated by the Press, but as one of the greatest sufferers by the overflow of the Waimakariri. Also, that I was not guilty of saying what is untrue when I stated—as correctly reported in your paper—that Mr. Doyne had not been up to the gorge of the river. I had this information from Mr. Doyne himself, and I am sure it is true. But there are other statements in the article in question which reflect so seriously on the reputation of all the engineers who have preceded Mr. Doyne, and particularly on that of the gentleman who for so many years held the post of Provincial Engineer, that I must beg to be allowed to recall a few facts in their favour. The Press states that " Mr. Doyne is the first engineer who set about collecting and arranging on a large scale those facts which could throw any light on the subject;" and," Mr. Doyne shews that the river runs to the north simply because the plain dips in that direction. Now that is a new fact." Now, sir, to imitate the terse English of the Press I must say that both these statements are untrue, and further, I say most distinctly, that no new facts are given to the public by Mr. Doyne ; on the contrary, the whole of the useful information contained in his report, could have been, if it was not, collected from the surveys and reports of Mr. Dobson and others. Indeed if Mr. Doyne had made use of all the information contained in the Public Works Office, he would have been able to have given a far more valuable paper to the public, and would have been saved from making such statements as—" I find that many surveys and lines of levels have been taken on these plains from time to time, but I have been unable to find that they have been taken in such & systematic form as to tend to definite conclusions, or recorded in a manner which enables the whole to be reviewed in one comprehensive plan." Here is a distinct but most unfounded charge against the old and tried head of the Public Works Department, and I must give it a most unqualified denial. So far from a careless and detached system having been pursued, I assert that every set of levels ever taken were reduced by Mr. Dobson to one datum, and that numerous connected bench-marks were fixed by him throughout the country, and can be referred to at any time. The only disconnected set of levels I know of are those taken by Mr. Doyne's instructions. The red line on Mr. Doyne's map showing the probable course of the Waimakariri if left uncontrolled is, or might have been, copied from a plan in the Public Works office prepared by myself; and the members of the late Government can prove that I have often pointed it out to them.

The " new fact" that the supposed tendency of the Waimakariri to go northwards is due to " a steady upheaval of the land in the neighbourhood of Banks' Peninsula." and the offer of the suggestion to the Government Geologist, as also the theory of the formation of the plains by the deposit of shingle brought down from the mountains by the river, are rather amusing to those who for years have had the subjects brought constantly before them, and especially to those who had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Haast's inaugural address to the Philosophical Institute, and remember the discussion which then took place as to the effect of the upheaval of the land would have upon the tunnel. I should be sorry that Mr. Doyne should be deprived of the pleasure and profit of taking a set of levels, as he proposes, to ascertain whether Christchurch is in danger; but if any information is required on this subject, the whole of the necessary levels will be found in the Public Works Office, and a most "exhaustive" series of reports from Mr. Bray and others will be found in the columns of yonr paper and elsewhere. Who is there that has lived here a few years, but remembers the impressive way in which Mr. Bray used to point out the exact level to which the water might be expected to rise in various parts of Christchurch? How he would startle the Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands or some other functionary by indicating the exact button of his waistcoat which would be just out of water as he stood in his office! Ido not believe that there is a single acre between Christchurch and the Waimakariri of which the level has not been ascertained with the view to the enquiry which is now treated as a new onel I must apologize for the length of my remarks, but when I find a slur cast upon an old Public Officer who has worked like a navvy for the public and almost for a navvy's pay, who has for many long years done the whole work which is now divided between numerous persons, and who has always done it carefully and well. I feel happy that, 110 longer practising any profession, I am able to use my pen to recall facts which are too likely to be forgotten by those who think that what is newest must be best. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, JAMES WYLDE.