Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 1899. HARBOR BUILDING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8416, 16 January 1899, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 1899. HARBOR BUILDING.

Nkw Zealand Governments, though they have one or two pet harbors, such as Nelson, which ihey maintain, or New Plymouth, to which they have given a good deal of indirect assistance, have cast all the responsibilities of harbor building upon the residents of the localities in which the harbors are situate, who in many cases have taxed themselves most heavily to provide what ufter all are really colonial works. The obtainment of good harbors at various ports along the coast must surely be as great an essential to the development of the resources of the colony us the running of railways through the land. The unfur-.. Minute position of this district has been that whilst other places in the colony blessed with harbors have been granted all the advantages of road and railway communication, we, without such, have had no railways and few roads to assist in making the money we have struggled to pay for harbor building become reproductive. Harbors and railways should go together as the helpmeets of civilisation, one feeding the other, and eaoli enabling the other to pay its way. This has been recognised in several of the other colonies, where the Governments have carried on harbor building as a great national work, and particularly in New South Wales, where immense sums of public money arc annually appropriated for the purpose. It is not, however, with the idea of endeavoring to induce the Government of New Zealand to adopt a similar course, that we propose to make reference to the work of harbor construction in the sister colony —that would be utterly futile— but, it will, we think, interest our readers to learn something of what has been done under somewhat similar conditions to those that prevail here to make navigable harbors on the inhospitable New .South Walcscoast. Generally speaking, the same principle has been adopted all the way along the coast, namely, induced and concentrated tidal scour, by means of guiding walls and breakwaters. This is held to have been an eminently successful method, tending to largo reductions in the cost of dredging in the lower and unstable portions of the rivers, and thus permitting the use of the plant in deepening the upper portions and extending the limits of navigation. What interests us particularly is that at most of the entrances considerable improvements have been effected by the running out of breakwaters and training walls from each bank of the river, in a similar manner to what is beiny done here. At the Tweed River Heads, no less than 5J miles of training walls has been constructed at a cost of £28,789. Before the wall was cemmenced the channel of the river was tortuous and carried from 2ft to 6ft of water only ; now it boasts of from 10ft to 20tt at low water. This increase iv depth h,-s been effected partly by dredging, and partly by the scour induced by the training wall. At Richmond river entrance, upon lines laid down by Sir John Coode, the current has been given a straight course to the mouth, breakwaters have been constructed on each side, and a safe entrance to a permanent harbor is assured. At Clarence river, with similar works, there have been clear indications of an improved entrance. There, however, there is a considerable scour, and the river has out out a channel lift to 50ft in depth. At Macleay river, which is more of a tidal river, and more closely resembles the conditions at Gisborne, training walls have confined the river to a straight channel in which there is a depth of from 12 to 14ft, and northern and southern breakwaters which the Public Works Department propose to build at a cost of £93,000 are expected to give a splendid harbor entrance. On the Bellinger bar £26,000 has been expended in constructing training walls, and the Department propose to spend £26,000 more, after which no further expenditure, it is thought, will be necessary. At Nambucca £149,000 is being spent in building breakwaters and low stone walls, and the work already done has given a better entrance. The same system is being pursued to give entrance to the Hastings river, and at Trial Bay and Camden Haven breakwaters are being built at the heads of small bays. At Wanning river £55,000 has been expended in dredging, but while this work has given a measure of relief, it has always been felt that nothing short of the consiruction of walls and breakwaters for the training and concentration of the river currents could give satisfactory and permanent results, and v, north training-wall commenced in 18P.5 has already borne this theory out. It is now proposed, according to Sir John Coode's plans, to make two breakwaters at a present cost of £100,000. A scheme of breakwater extension at Newcastle, to cost £140,000, has been sanctioned by Parliament, and is now in progress with already appreciable results. New South Wales, it should he seen, affords sufficient examples to justify the plan of operations being pursued at Gisborne. Our misfortune is, however, as we mentioned at the outset, that the people of this isolated district have to bear the whole of the burden themselves, receiving not one pennyworth of assistance from the Government to aid them in carrying out a most necessary work.