TO THE EDITOR OF THE LYTTELTON TINES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 5008, 8 March 1877, Page 3

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LYTTELTON TINES.

Sin,—l noticed in your paper of March 3 that the lending men of the liaU/payerg* Association have gr> to speak, all at once become famous as engineers and wish at the same time to employ anot) < * engineer to do a plcca of work, which neither the one nor the other can, by any possibility, understand anything at all about a« a drainage scheme, they are now wishing to carry forward, vis., that of creating anew channel,so as to drain away all filthy fluids, and on a plan bearings great similarity, excepting the channel, to the one Mr Carruthers propounded with regard to the pollution of the strearnsof water, and one which nearly the whoh* of the ratepayers condemned a few days ago. In accordance with this novel idea, the food tides wiil be certain to force the filthy stream bock again a long way np the Hcatbc >te riv,.r. With respect to the filling up -f the estuary with the soil dug oat of the channel, f bog leave to stare in positive terms that in doing so the harbour's mouth will bo certain tool .sc up altoge'her, and whenever heavy falls of rain take place the principal part of the Heatlicote district will become inundated, as well os the lowest portion of the town of Christchurch. With respect to blasting of rocks in mid-channel, if such a scheme shout : bo carried out, instead of its causing a deep channel it. will most assuredly act'/uit-i the contrary way. and will form a bar there ana then, and a portion -.1 water of the estuary will most certainly form a channel for its seif vnjthward of the Cave rock, and then it must, wash away a portion of the towns hip of Sumner, The practical plan would be. instead ot blasting and clearing away the rocks, to Sd up with heavy stones, Ac., ail division in the rocks, so as to creme a solid wall on the south mdc, and or. the opposite side drive in f ,ur rows of piles, and fill la with heavy stones, Ac., so as to form » mas save solid wall, and then to leave an entrance of two chains in width, and in doing so the weight of the waters of the estuary will make a channel from Id to H feel in depth at high water mark. The estuary should not be reclaimed, or else the entrance will be certain to close up.—l am, Ac., March i. J. S. M. JACOBSEN’, M. AC. S.