THE OUTER BAR.—A REFUTATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 5325, 14 March 1879, Page 5

THE OUTER BAR.—A REFUTATION.

At the meeting of the Harbour Board yester. day, the Chairman (Mr H. TewsJey) ra ferred to the public meeting that was held lately at Port Chalmers, at which, he said, some raah statements bad been made by a member of that community in reference to the outer bar. He thpngh*, the proper course for the individual in question to pursue, holding the opinions he did, would have been to offer himself as a representative of the Port on the Board. However, that had not been done. There was only one thing in which he (Mr Teweley) thoroughly agreed with the gentleman in question, and that was in reference to letting the contract to Mr Proudfoot. That was decidedly a mistake, and he had said so frequently ; but there was no occasion for it to bs harped on any longer. All were liable to make mistaken sometimes, and he had long said that this was a mistake on the part of the Board. Beyond that he did not a°ree with a single thing that was said. Under the circum-tances, however, he head thought it best to request the Engineer to prepare a report as a reply to the statements that had been put forward. Mr Fish: Who was it? The Chairman : It was a gentleman named Mr Elder. , . Mr Fish : Ah, that accounts for it.

The Secretary then read the following report prepared by the Engineer: — Harbour Engineer's Office, Dunedin, sth March, 1879. Memo, for Chairman Otago Harbour Board. As you requested, I have carefully perused the Press reports of the public meeting held at Port Chalmers relative to the condition of the harbour and bar, in which Mr Elder is accredited with certain statements of an extraordinary character reflecting upon the manner in which the works are being executed, and the injury alleged to be done to the harbour by same ; and I take the opportunity of furnishing the Board with replies to the several state-, ments in so far as they have relation to this department. 1. Mr Elder alleges that "the result of the operations in the Upper Harbour interest us only in so far as we are being taxed, in common w;th other?, for their completion, and we find them to be that the channel, dredged at so much expense, is filling up, in some place-iat least, almost as soon as being passed. For instance, from 10ft. to 20ft. astern of the upper dredge, where the Engineer reports that they had left a blue clay bottom, there is now 18in. of sand over the clay. This, of course, means that in the time the dredge has progressed 20ft., the channel already dredged has filled in Bin." This statement, I need not say, is without foundation, as in no case has the channel filled up to any extent beyond what may have fallen from the bucket* during their revolution; and fis rogards the channel cut by the dredge New Era (the upper dredge), no silting up has there taken place. Further, no report was furnished showing that the bottom reached was blue clay, and the alleged 18 inches deposit within 20 feet of the dredge is purely imaginary on the part of Mr Elder, or on that of hU informant. "2. The work at Kilgoar's Point is even more disastrous, as the great tidal scour round the end of the wall U sweeping out the sand that used to lie quietly in Blanket Bay into the channel so quickly, that although they have been working double gangs night and day, they have not yet caught the bank, which, indeed, seems to recede from them as quickly as they proceed to it. The truth of this statement may be verified by any pasietigf r by train to Dunedin. The result of this shifting of the sand is that the water in the channel outside this wall has shoalf d from three to four feet, the whole of which sand will have to be redredgsd out of the channel." The Kilg.mr's Point wall hai certainly been so far carried out iiucbr exceptionally peculiar circumstances, haviug had bad weather and a strong tidal scour to contend against. The object to be gained, however, in constructing this wall, is to cbeck the coastal scour, and concentrate the current in the roa:n channel, which is gradually being accomplished, although in the early stage under adverse circumstances. The scour at the tip end is now comparatively insignificant. This is evidenced by the fact that the depth at low water :s oi;ly five feet, as compared with 12 to 18 feet during the obstruction of the first 10 chains of the wall. I cannot cjmprehend bow a person merely a passenger hy train can verify Mr Elder's statements. Evidently that gentleman's information has been acquired in a railway carriage, and it will no douSt, therefore, be accepted as being equally valuable and authentic with that so often nowadays obtained from tLe man in thp street. The main channel has not suffered any diminution in depth from the construction or the wall, nor has the sand which quietly Lty in Blanket Bay been disturbed more than what is due to the orJioary tfflux and influx of the tide. Tiie ebb scour at tip end no doubt removed some of the sand in clo^e proximity to the wall, but this has beea deposit el alongside the outer face, which will prove a great proted ion to it. "3. We come now to the Lower Harbour, and that the banks are extending and channels narrowing and shoaling will, I think, be easily proved. To do this we linw only to look back at the capabilities of t!je harbour some years ago. A few years ago the \e-se's wero moored in the channel two abreast, or in two tiers, but now only one tier can be moored, and tliess must be zig-zagged ; even then they swing on to the banks. Just take one vetsrl as instance of many. The Dunedin, on bein? moored when entering harbour, grounded every tide till lightened, was re-moored when light, grounded again, and final'y had to be removed to the head of the dock, and moored there head and stern. Even in this new position she was in the mud every tide. It hai been asserted that the reason of this is that the class of vessels at present frequenting the harbour are longer now than formerly; but if the vessels are longer, it must not be forgotten that they arc of a much lighter draught, drawing from two to four feet less —in fact, were built expressly foi' this port; and in place of short and deep vessel-*, we have now long shallow ones, the difference in draught fully compensating the difference in length. Even in the old days such vessels as the Lady Jocelyn, Hydaspes, Lady Egidia, and others of a similar class, visited the Port, and were moored as already stated. That the banks are heightening where out of water is easy of proof. Our fkhcurers tell us that their oyster-beds on the banks are covered with froni four to six inches of mud ; in fact, that last season their entire stock was destroyed by the mud accumulation. And should anyone doubt the truth of this assertion, he may pay a visit to the banks off Port Chalmers (landing, say, at the Powder-magazine), and walk over to the punt moored at Tunnage's oyster-bed, the whole of which distance he will find that he sinks from four to six inches in nasty black stinking mud, not on nice clean sand as a few years ago." As to the assertions contained in this sate meut, I cannot altogether co fute them, having had no expsriencj of the harbour ant rior to the period of my connection with the BoarJ, but I should th-nk that Mr Elder will not readily be disposed to contradict tho oScial infonnitijn contained in Stokes' Admiralty Chart. I have instituted a close c mparion between this chart and tha plan prepared under my supervision, which latter contains the a-bind-ings and position, aud relative height, t.f the sar.dbatilis above low water, and I fail to find a further discrepancy than, what is due to natural tidal action, a process common to all harbours similarly situated to Ofc&go Harbour. IVIr Elder instances vessels which formerly were able to be moored two abreast, oi- in two ti°rs, can only be moored in single tier 3. Of tliii Captain Thorn on can, from a nautical point of view, i o doubt speak authoritatively ; bu-1 cau positively affirm, from the actual survey, that the least width of the channel hiving a depth of 20 feet at low water, ia 860 feet, and that is at a contracted part opp. site the lower end of Dehorah Bay. JStokes shows at this same p)aca 600 feet. Below this and extending to the anchorage station assigned t> powder versels, the lea^t width at thi 20 feet low water line is else upon 12C0 feat. Stokes gives the same. Again, opposite Koputai Bay, and from thence to opposite the lower end of Deborah Bay, the least width having the same depth already specified ia about 930 fett. Stokes shows 800 feet. It will be apparent, therefore, that instead of the channel width decreasing it has actually increased, if Stokes' chart is to be accepted as an authority, and I should certainly tike it in preference to statements fcimply hazarded or put forward unsupported by fact 3or actual measurements. In no case in the main channel, iv so far as the sou v dugs have been taken, or in Koputai Bay, has mnd been met with. Redacting the draught of vessels now frequenting the Port, as compared with those trading in former years, Captaiu Thomson's opinion will have greater weight than Mr Elder's, and I should be inclined to believe that it will show the latter's statement upon that point to be utterly valueless. The tanks Dre taid to be "heightening," and to have received lately a coating of mud ; and the fishcurer'a evidence is adduced as incontestable proof of such being the case. As to the " heightening" pivc si that is alleged to have occurred iv the banks, I should like fuither evidence than Mr E'der's mere asiertion to that effect. Captain Stokes does not indicate on hia chart the avei a.je height of the several banks, aLcl it cannot be ascertained beyond a doubt whether or not an elevating process has been going on, but from their appearance I should be t-trongly disinclined to acrept a etateiueut not founded on ac'-uid survty that they show a less depth at high watßr than they did formsily; but, admitting that it couM be proven beyond it doubt that the banks are higher now than they were eevt-ral years ago, how can Mr Elder attribute the process to reclamation in the Upper Harbour? As to the mud deposit, it is fortunate that the banks are available at low water for examination by any person who msy care to take the trouble to do go, and I am confident that the result will prove the banks to be very different from the condition they are stated to be in by MrEller. During the survey operations 1 t-ly carried on no such appearance of lately dep sited mud was visibla, and there were no indications of recent accumulation of any kind of foreign material. It will he observed from Stokes' map that the surfaces of the banks are shown as composed of sand, mud, and shell-, which appearance they present at the present day, and in such localities where ordinary tidal action would placa them. "4. It will be remembered that the Hon. J. Macandrew, on his proceeding North in July last, had his attention directed to the ship Renfrewshire lying aground in the channel off the Export Wharf, aud at that time promised that pressure would be brought to bear bo that one of the dredgC3 would be sent down to attack that particular bank; but the dredge has not yet made her appearance, and the bank remains where it was, the only difference beirig, I suppose, that it is a little bigger. Gentlemen, we wonder at the people of Auckland building a dock capable of holding the largest class of vfseels coming to their harbour in a position wh^re they can only obtain 10 feet of water on the Bill; but surely their action is wisdom itielf when compared with that of tVose who, having a channel to their dock and plenty of water on the sill, deliberately cloire their eyes to the fact that that channel, and, in fact, the whole <f Koputai Bay, ia filling up ra'Mly. We all remember the steamer Omeo lying with her bow alongside the steps of the old wharf at the foot of George street, discharging fcer caMle, where now there ia not 12 iuches of wat r."

Mr Elder haa again allowed hiß imagiuition to run loose, <r he has peon the recipient of information far from being authentic. There is no bank in Koputai Bay other than that which bars the entrance, ana which has been in existence since Captain Stokeß made bis survey. Koputai Bay is in a similar position aa regards depth of water to that indicated by the sounding* on Stokes map, and also by the sounding* shown on plan furnished by the Town of Port Chalmers Extension Commissioners in 1864. To bdow that such is the case I would refer to plans I have prepared, showing the soundings taken at the three several periods, viz., 1850, 1864, and 1878. "5. Gentlemen, when we think of the thousands of tonß of silt from the river aides, and seweragefrom Dunedin, which havegoneinto the harbour for the last number of years, to say nothing at all about the vast amount of reclamation (so called, but mud-diatribution would be a better name for it), and that none of that material is being removed, we cannot but come to the conclusion that the harbour must be filling up." It is singular that the large quantities of silt and sewerage matter Mr Elder asßumes finda an outlet into the harbour does not appear to have had & shoaling effect either in the Upper or Lower Harbour; neither has reclamation, so far, shown symptoms of prejudicing the depth of water in the main channels or the bar. On the other hand, a comparison of Stokes' chart and the Board's plan-now in course of preparation—will chow clearly great improvements in the lower extremity of the channel of the Lower Harbour, where, not many years ago, sandbanks and shoal water above Harrington Point, made the entrance^ to the harbour more difficult, and attended with leas safety than is now experienced. "6. We now come to the keystone of the whole tabric—the bar, and it is a matter of much concern and pain to me to be placed in the position I find myself in respect to it. Aa is known to you, I have over and over again urged on the Harbour Board, through the olumns of the daily papers, tbe fact that, f >r reasons which it was not for me to state, the condition of the bar was becoming gradu ally but surely we we. As they say, this fact has been iterated and reiterated in their ears ; the only effect, however, being that they have given the statement the lie direct, and accused the people of Port Chalmers of fouHn? their own nest. Only a few days aero it is reported in the columns of the Dunedin papers that Messrs Tewsley and Simpson, while forming part of a deputation to the Hon. tfce Attorney-General, made the assertion that the bar was in as good a condition as ever it wns. The assertion of Mr Tewsley, the chairman of the Harbour Board, was that a great deal had been said of the shoaling up of the bar, but the officers of the Board reported that there was really no difference in that respect. And Mr Simpson is reported to have said: 'Stokes'suivay was made in 1850 —29 years ago. Reclamation has been going on in the Upper Harbour, and more or less in the Lower Harbour, for the last 15 or 1G years, ai;d there was no injurious effect on the bar, becansa the soundings on the bar at the present time give as deep water as was found by Stoke 3.' Gentlemen, knowing as I do that these assertions are not true, and feeling sure that if persisted in they will recoil with tremendous force some d;iy to the detriment of the harbour, I feel it to be my duty, even at the risk of being accusad of ' fouling my nest,' to ltt the plain facts of the sate of the tar be knowii, feeling sure that ouce they are known the whole Provincial District will be up in arms, and demand that htaps be taken to remedy the evil. Gentlemen, this is not a Port Chalmers question, it is rot a Dunedin question, but it is a question that affects the interests of every man, woman, and child in the whole Provincial D'strict. The state of the bar is, then, briefly this : When Stokes' survey was taken in 1850, the recorded depth oE water in the south channel is 17, and 20 feet in the north channel at low water; and by the last report, publishei only a few days priir to the waiting of the deputation on Mr Stout, we find the depth in the south cham si to be 10 feet, and m the north 18— a difference of two feet in each channel." This question of the bar appears to have occupied the attention of the Port Chalmeis remknts for somi considerable time. (Statements similar to the one made by Mr El !er have been vouchsafed on repeated occasion?, and although a? often semi-officially contradicted, it is only now that I am in a position to positively affirm that there is iiractieally no alteration in the depth of water on the bar. Soundings hive be n carefully taken in smooth water, and are now recorded on the plan, a reference to which should convince the most obdurate and sceptical of Port Chaliiieis alarmists that their prognostications have bac-n purely imaginary. The bar has always been liabta to alteration in the depth lengthwife, and it will b9 found upon comparison of the litely recorded soundings and those taken by Captain Stoke? that the average depth of water is virtually the same. Captain Stokes shows as the least depth on the line of the leading lights from 15 to 1G feet, and a few chains westward of same 15 feet; while the soundings now completed give 15 feet as the minimum d< pth at the intersection of the leading lights line, and IG£ feet the fame distance westwards, that Stokes shows 15 feet. Again, in t'ae north channel, the depth is almost precisely the same at the present timl as Stokes rec rcU on his chart—that is, the least depth is 20 feet. This can be clearly ascertained upou inspection of the plans. It will be sesn, therefore, that Mr Elder has re.eived incorrect infortmtton when he states that Stokes' chart gives 17 foet as tbe minimum depth of water on the bar, and that the north channel has shoaled two feet. "7. I put it to you, gentlemen, which of us is the one who is mist likely to destroy the credit of tbe harbour—the one who fearlessly speaks the truth and boldly a-serts that the bar is gradually besoming worsp, or the other who, although he himself supplies the figures that fhow that the bar has shcaled two feet, shameleasly asserts that there hno change, and decoy ve-sels drawing a larger draught than pnident to this port, to tbeir injury ? Your reply must he in favour of tbe first. Gentlemen, these are the fads in connection with the harbour and bar, and it gives me, as I said before, much pain to assert that they are facts. With the causa of the shoaling I have nothing to do; suffice it to say that it exists. Yet I may hint that emineiit engineers, amongst whesa ranks I am not numbered, have given it as their opinion that reclamation in this and rther tidal harbours is lik"lyr to proimte stoaling." This does not requite any comment from ins. I can only assume that Mr EWer, in his concluding remarks, was actuated by a desire to parade hia declamatory powers, even at the risk of offending the good sense of intelligent people. Before concluding, I desiie to inform the Board of two facts in connection with the Lower Harbour which appear to me to be worthy of notice. They are as follows : —Captain Stokes records on his chart an inner bar about 50 chains above Harrington Point, the minimum depth in which is 15 feet. This bar has gradually disappeared, and now at the present time the least depth at the same place is 36 feet The channel is now clear and distinct, and there is consequently no risk of danger from vessels grounding as was the case formerly. Instances have occurred of vessels suffering damage therefrom, and more particularly nwy be recorded the cases of the ships Saldanha and Cincinnati, which were so strained by grounding on the inner bar that they had afterwards to be condemned as unseaworthy. Moreover, vessels in early days drawing 18 feet were not allowed-by Driver, the pilot who was then in charge, to go beyond the inner bar, and had consequently to be discharged immediately above Harrington Point. Again, at the lightship the depth of water was 12 feet when it was first moored, but now it is about 24 feet. These are matters of considerable significance, the more especially when it has been determined that the channel has not diminished in width or depth at any part between the Fort and the Heads. D. L. Simpson, Engineer. Mr Fish thought that was a wipefor Mr Elder. Ths document was a very long one certainly, but seeing that it referred to a question of so much public importance he thought the Board would be quite justified in asking the Press to publish it. If the Presj did not do so, then they would be justified in paying for it to be printed. Those who knew Mr Elder would not be at all surprised at his rematks. This was no new subject to Mr Elder—it was a subject on which he fancied Mr Elder had gone cfiizy. However, the very calm professional remarks of Mr Simpson should convince Mr Elder, if he were open to conviction, that the btatements so recklessly made from time to time by persons who he was forced to believe were acting from selQsh and wicked motives—simply a deaire t i foster and keep up their own position commercially as a di trict, as against the int-restsof the country as a whole — were without foundation. Either that must be tbe opinion, or the Board's Enginesr was not worihy to remiin in their employ a day longer. Mr John Mill said he must certainly give Mr Simpson credit for preparing fo able and careful a report. He considered, however, that there were one or two miestatements in it. He thoroughly agreed with the remarks of Mr Elder. There was not the slightest doubt in his mind that the harbour was Bilting up, and he did not believe there was a member of that Board who did not entertain the same opinion to some extent. Mr Walter al-io concurred that the Board ought to feel indebted to Mr Simpson for his very able report. After a tew r marks from Messrs Burt and Ramsay, tho document was laid on the table, and it was resolved to print it in pamphlet form if the Preas failed to publish it. CRICKET. « A spec'al meeting of the Cricket Association was held yesterday aftemom, in Mr J. P. "Webb's office. There were present: Messis Eva (president, in the chair), Rosa (sscretary), Wyinks, L. J. Mcnre, Cohen, Shelton, and Spring. The meeting had been ca'led to consider a suggestion that had been made, that the Association should invite Lord Harris and the other English cricketers, who are pa's^n-

gers by the Albion, to play a one-day's match in Dunedin for the benefit of the Kaitangata Fund. The chairman remarked that the idea had been warmly taken up and favourably received outside, and if time and the engagements of Lord Harris and his friends allowed them to play as suggested, there was little doubt that the match would be the means of adding a very considerable sum to the fund. After some discussion, the President, Secretary, and Mr Cohen, were appointed a committee to communicate with Lord Harris, and inthe event of a favourable reply being received from him, the Match Committee were authorised to make immediate arrangements for the selection of a team to play against the visitors. There will be a match on Saturday on the Caledonian Ground sbetwean Carisbrook Juniors and Britannia Cricket Club. The following will represent the Carisbrook Juniors: — . Morris A W, Morris G, Fuller A, Bunnatyne W, Hackworth A, Edwards W, Simpson A, Reynolds E C, Reynolds L H, Gray R, Taiaroa J. The Carisbrook First Eleven will continue their match with the Colts to-morrow, commencing the game at 2.15. The C.C.C. Second Eleven will play against a 15 of the R. and C. United, and will be represented by Austin E, Bannatyne, Eichbautn, Edwards, Hume, Nortbcote, Pike, Smith R, Sleigh, Wheeler, Hackworth ; emergencies— Fuller and Brodrick. On Monday (St. Patrick's Day) the Oamaru C.C. will try conclusions with a C.C.C. Eleven.