Karamea Harbour Bed Lifted by Earthquake

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7240, 21 August 1933, Page 3

Karamea Harbour Bed Lifted by Earthquake

RESIDENTS CUTTING CHANNEL,

Since tho Murchison earthquake on tho West Coast of the South. Island in 1929 the harbour at Karamea hag been closed to shipping as the result of'the lifting of tho' harbour bed following the seismological disturbance. .A sura of £35,000 has been expended on machinery and a quarry to build a retaining wall, it being assumed that the wall would cause the flood waters to Wash away tho bar. These efforts, however, have not been the suc-cess hoped for.

The citizens of Karamea, under the leadership of an old-resident, Mr W. R. Simpson, are now cutting a channel

through the bar in the hope that a rush of flood waters from the high surrounding country will clear the bar, and by opening up the channel again mako the harbour suitable for shipping. Since the earthquake the harbouT, up which fair-sized coastal steamers used to navigate, is little more than a small lagoon completely cut off from the sea. The channel now under construction is about 12 chains long, one chain wide, and about 10ft. deep. There are said to bo orders on hand fOT large quantities of timber which it is impossible to get out of Karamea, except by transport by road to Little Wanganui. This, however, adds too much to the transport costs to make the industry profitable.