UNDERGROUND CAVE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22161, 15 July 1935, Page 10

UNDERGROUND CAVE

MOUNT EDEN DISCOVEKY SIDE PIERCED BY SHAFT SURPRISE FOR WORKMEN A In rue underground rock cavern was discovered at the week-end by workmen excavating for a sewer at Sliackleton Hond, Mount Eden. The cavern, which appears to have 110 natural outlet, is about '2ooft. long and the floor of it is about 25ft. below the ground surface. For a great deal of its length the roof is from 10ft. to 12ft. above the floor. At its widest point the chamber measures 20ft. or more across.

In the course of their work on the drainage scheme the men were sinking a shaft in the garden of a house near the Dominion Hoad end of Shackleton Bond, when the bottom of the shaft pierced one side of the cavern, almost at its floor level. The long, tunnellike chamber was then surprisingly revealed, running roughly north-east and south-west, or from Shackleton Boad toward Sunglen Avenue. The aperture was made half-way along its Icyigth. At its ShKekleton Boad end the chamber narrows gradually to a pile of debris, nhich might possibly conceal the beginnings of a smaller tunnel. The other end, however, ceases more or less abruptly at an apparently blank rock face, and the width of the floor is maintained fairly evenly to the end. The arched roof and walls are smooth, but the floor is littered with broken slabs of rock. Where the floor is exposed it is pitted and rough. It is said that in the early days a long, natural tunnel was spoken of. It was supposed to run diagonally in a direction from Shackleton Boad to Mount Eden Boad. The cavern just encountered would seem to be a different one. In any case it is not nearly as long as the old tunnel is- supposed to be. Its apparent lack of outlets, beyond the one just artificially made, indicates that hitherto its existence was unknown. The darkness within is intense. At numerous points water drip 3 from the roof and splashes eerily to the floor. In one place the seepage from above evidently accumulates irl a pocket of rock, for periodically it descends suddenly in a noisy cascade. While not interfering in any way with the excavations in hand the cavern will not assist them, for it runs the wrong way.