HARBOUR WORKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume II, Issue 497, 16 June 1865, Page 6

HARBOUR WORKS.

To the Editor of the New Zealand Hekaid. Eie, — It is villi no Jiftlo anxious concern that I would draw the attention of the public to the course of operations in connection with (lie harbour works now Icing undertaken, which is calculated, in the opinion of the most coni] ctu;t judges amongst us in Auckland, lo prove iMst destructive to tho noble harbour, which is (iie piuie tu.d mr.instay of (lie province. "Within the lust fix months the Ivor's in course of construction by the pmvircMal authorities have caused the water to shral to the extent of IS inches. This prccesa is gnuiua Iy but suiely coing CD, and at mi increased ratio as (lie wort? alluded to p-rocrefs farther and fortl.er into '}ie stream. One of these works is the stoncbu akvatirbeing carried out from Point Britomart— a costly work, which while it does its share to cause the harbour to silt up, •will not answer the purpose for which it was supposed to have been constructed. It las these two qua!f!eatior.s for public faviur: it will not shelter env.ii. iraft frt-n tlie K.X. pssUrly pales, those from which they sulVerniofit, — and at the rate of which it is causing the harbour inside it to silt up, those same boats, if shelter even would bo found within it, will be unable to float there. In addition to these two qualifications it possesses the attraction, that by the time it shall have been completed, it will have cost some £fiO,CCO, a si.m that would have settled a large number of immigrants upon the Waikato, or have opened up thousands upon thousands of acres of land with good roads in the interior. Another cf these works which are comprised in tlie " comprehensive plan" being now carried out, and which is taking a prominent part in silting up the harbor, is the filling in witli stone ballast, as iar as low water mark, the site of the Queen-street pior. Let any one who doubts the eil'ects of those works, as stated by me, r.ow look for himself, and he will find that along the stone -wall, built as a face to Cus-tom-house-street, the whole 1 :wcr tier of stone is entirely covered —while alongside tho wharf itself, the " sea serpent" is nearly covered with the deposit, and really requires a dose of castor oil to enable it to per.'onn its proper functions. Beep water is being driven further and further over towards tlie Korth Shore, and let it be borne in ni'ud that the harbour opposite the termination of the Qufcn-strect wharf is only three-fourths of a mile in width. In order, it- is said, to lighten the traffic on the Queen-street wharf, si new wharf is being constructed oiT Customhouse-street, and of course within the breakwater. Practically what the use of this wharf will be I am at a loss to deteimine, as this wharf is only 20 feet in width, just room for one cart to pass another with safety. But how, I ask, are good? to be landed upon it, for in that case there would scarcely be room for one cart to pass up and clown ; besides, sir, with the inner basin silting up i.t the rate of IS inches in six months, small craft will soon be unable to lie alongside of it at all. I have noticed from time to time a very curious operation going on in its construction, namely this, The piles are, it appears, too long, butinstead of cutting the spare portion oft' the thin end, they are driven in thin end first and the waste length cut oil' the thick end of the pile. I have alfo been led to understand that tlie work was to have been completed according to contract by the end of liny. It is not nearly finished now. M;iy I ask, in the" name of Die public, -whether any fine for non-completion of the work by tho time specified was inserted in the contract, and, if inserted, whether acted upon :- And nwy I also ask whether a similar fine has ever 'ucci! exacted in the case of provincial contracts taken by Auckland men. I understand that it is intended to add considerably to tho Queen-street Wharf, and that muntz metal has been sent for wherewith to sheathe the piles. I also hear that tho piles intended to bo used have been sent for from Tasmania, the extra expense of so doing being to secure piles of a wood that will resist tho action of tho salt water. These piles will bo expensive, so will tho .sheathing metal. If tho metal is worth tho heavy exponso incurred in its cost and will save the piles, why go to tho extra heavy expense also of obtaining superior wood from Tasmania ? Why not use kau. ; , oven r If the piles fetched from Tasmania at a heavy cost aro equal to what is I required of them, and are, therefore, worth that cost, why sond home for muiit/. metal to sheathe them ? i'ollH, &C, Anii Purr. Auckland, Juno 15th. THE PENNY WHISTLE. To tho Editor of tho Nfav Zealand Hkuaid. Sib, —In "Poor Richard's Almanack" tho celebrated Benjamin Franklin tells us, how once upon a time, in tho days of his green boyhood, he set sii s doar little heart upon buying a whistle, but bought it at too high a price, how came°to '

grief, and how always Ihero'iftei ho made it a maxim not to pnv too dear "for his whistle. Tho Penny IHiUUc of to-day inaugurates its pennv whistling with telling a similar tale. Tho readers of tho Fenny Whistle- may, if they wish, believe :md wonder—or they may, if they like, disbelievo and laugh. Some, of them, no doubt, will bo inclined to whist'o and say servo him right. Hut what is this new talc of Poor Jack and his whistle ? It is this. Poor Jack was a very good boy—who b,,t lie—and ho had si very nico whistle, which played many nico tunes. Now thero were in the whistle certain avenues and apertures, bv monns of which were sent forth certain alto and falsetto notes of a most peculiar kind, that set on "ed"-e tho teeth of people in general, but were intensely charming to tho curs and soul of Poor Jack. At last ho stopped up nil tho other apertures, and blow away at his altitudes until he was perfectly red and black in fho face, so that ho was indicted, himself and whi>tle, as n nuisance. His obstinacy cost nim _ !lC countß audited by the "proprietary' of tho J'em»i Whistle— thirty thousand pounds, thnt being tho amount of tho reward offered a hundred years ago bv tho Government of King Gcoi-RO for the apprehension of the rretender in Scotland. Poor Jack, it seems, has in liko manner invested somehow, or forfeited, thirty thousand pounds, for the purpose of quellinff tho Scotch party in Auckland—only that party is still alive and kicking—not to speak of tho glorification of the Maoris. Poor Jack loved tho Scots after a fashion, and he loTcd tho Maorisafter another fashion —for he ie of u loving and kindly disposition—but, as Poor Richard says, ho has paid too dear for his whistle. But the wonder is that after tho forfeiture of " thirtv thousand pounds" —not Scots, but sterling— for tho sake of the alto and falsetto holes of the whistle, those holes are now suffered to be stopped U p plugcod, wadded, and sealed—while tho other holes arc?piping , away ns loudly as can be expected from a penny whistle. A stitch in time saves nine, as the -proverb says, but it is too late to lock tho stable door when'the steed is stolen. Besides that after spending "thirty thousand pounds," Mco a prince, for the sake of" the altitudes, it is playing a tleseentlrniio scale with a vengeance to bo e.rtraetiiuj the nwmous or.rnable from tho l\-mi;i Whistle. Poor Jack afloat used to believe that tho way to •jet rid of a calm was to whistle for a wind. It is to be hoped that the Pom;/ Whistle will fulfil the now avowed object, single and Fole_, of its existence, nmvte'.v, to raise the wind ; but it is much to be feared ihat a"s Auckland cars could not endure the shrill <rlfo, as little will they relish the low—very low— basso. Yours truly, AMATEUn. Auckland Uarmonico, June 15, ISfif.. THE HYMN BOOK. To tho Editor of the New Zealand Herat.d. p H!i —Some time back it wn? announced in a public journal, that the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Presbyterian Church vias, at its next meeting, " to take steps towards obtaining a Hymn Book for the use of the congregations." Many Presbyterians in Auckland on reading this announcement were startled, grieved, and alarmed, because U\ey learned that the" new Hymn Book is not to be an improvement of tho metrical version of Ihc inspired juntas, hymns, nnd spiritual songs of tho Bible, which have been used, by Pivi'ne appointment, in the. church for more than three thousand years, but is to be a poetic effusion of erring mortals, placed side by side by the eternal light of the LMvixf. Wokp—like Dneon Ect up in the temple, side by side by tho ark of God! About Fixty or seventy uninspired hymns nnd paraphrases thrust into the Presbyterian Church, and often used instead of the inspired songs of Zion, havo long been deemed, it is well known, a grievous yoke and heavy burden by a considc-vnble minority in that Church. ' Tho assertion of Hebrew scholars that the Scottish metrical version of the IValms is not perfect, but ns near to perfection as any other version the world over saw, I believe to bo true; and would, therefore, insist that a perfect version be produced before the p'ace the Psalms, new in use, bo wholly or even partially usurped by hymns of mere human composition. And I hope- 'that the members of the New Zealand Presbyterian Church, so called, will fhew themselves so sufficiently alive to their best interests, as to resist to their Inst bnath this contemplated and hostile intrusion of novelties, by their miiii.-tc-r? and eldrrs, into their public worship in this Hge of novelties. I have a relish for the works of our poets, but let j their productions be dashed into the flames tbe [ moment they me made to occupy the place in our public worship for which they are not qualified ; but for which the sublime productions of the Divinelyinspired bard? nrc perfectly qualified, and infinitley wcithv to occupy ; for Ho who inspired them to compose thfso eongs of praise for our use. did what is best, as Ho always docs, for His own glory, and for the good of His creatures. PltO ECCXESIA. Auckland, Mth June, 18G5.