HARBOUR IMPROVEMENTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13811, 26 January 1907, Page 12

HARBOUR IMPROVEMENTS

SATISFACTORY PROGRESS OF THE WORKS. As time goes on it would seem that the possession o£ a good navigable port is to bo assured to Dunedin. The at the entrance are gradually approaching completion, and so far as is to be ascertained from a cursory examination they are working out according to the optimistic anticipations of tlio Harbour Board's engineer (Mr J. Blair Mason). The depth of water on the " flab " near the cntranoo is certainly giving no* cause for immediate- alarm, and the harbour master's reports as to the channel liave been exceedingly favourable of late. And it is said that a harbour master always "keeps a foot or two up his sleeve-" to come and go upon.

Yesterday a number of members of the New Zealand Institute 6f Surveyors, accompanied hy the engineer and other officials of the board, made an unofficial visit of inspection of tho works in the -p.s. Koputai, and wero conducted to a vantage point on tho saiulspit west of Harrington Point, to bo initialed into the vagaries of " shoals," "erosion," "scour," and many other tilings, which, although not in visible ■evidence, arc all important "works" within tho category of harbour improvements.

The Harrington Point side of the entrance is of rocky formation, and gives deep water well lip to the cliffs, but the sandy formation on the ether side comes within the scope of the board's operations. It is hero that extensive scrub and rock groins have been laid, all lvitli the object of "pocketing" and laying- respectively tho eaml which would otherwise go to swell tho " bank"' which lies just inside the entrance. Through tho agoacy of these groins the high-water mark in the locality is now some 20ft or 30ft farther out than it was a year ago—palpable evidence that the groins are acting well up to expectations. The rock groins serve the double purpose of preventing the eliding sands from returning into tho channel, and they collect, in addition, the wind-boine sand, piling it up this fine weather in some cases 3ft above the original beach surface, which must represent thousands of tons, which would otherwise find a haven in the channel, ultimately, no doubt, necessitating its removal by dredging or scouring.- The scrub groins are also doing their quota in this respect. Rock is being gradually added to the rock wall, which is being laid in a line with the entrance for a distance of about 2000 ft, this being one of the most important features of Mr Mason's improvements, and perhaps the most important factor in intercepting the silt and eliding sand. On the south side of Harrington Point the nine fence groins are_ doing necessarily slow but, nevertheless, satisfactory work, and are having the effect of stopping the erosion of tho sandy beach there, which was interfering with tho maintenance of a straight channel. Tho "new cut" inside the entrance bids fair lo fulfil the nimc sanguine expectations. Work at the quarry at Otakau is proceeding apace, and a tunnel is now laid for a distance of 50jt for the purpose of setting tho next blast, which will probably bring down 15,000 or 20,000 cubic yards of rock, Twenty men are at present engaged in putting tho rock for tho various training walls in punts for transport.