The Daily News. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1900. THE WAITARA HARBOUR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 304, 20 December 1900, Page 2

The Daily News. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1900. THE WAITARA HARBOUR.

in another celumn appears a very interesting and exhaustive report on the Waitara River by Mr. F. W. Marchant, who is well-known as a Marine Engineer oE considerable, experience, and who has for some years been engineer to the Hew Plymouth Harbour Board. Naturally, while holding | this position, Mr, Marchant has haj| ( exceptional opportune! staying the various influencWwrnoß wort for or against the snccoM%fHnoieMtß of both the New Plymouth and Waitara I Harbour Beards, and is, perhaps, the best' authority the latter body eould have .chosen for advice. His large 'experience as a Marine 1 Engineer, and his looftl knowledge, give a value 1* his opinions and enable him to speak with an authority that must comman<l respect andJjfary careful consideration of his advice,:, His be derided into three portions, historical, ,oommendatery/ and advisory. He briefly outlines natural conditions under which the work has been done to improve the harbour and the] nature of the wofk, g\ les on to express thV'opinion tk at so far as it has gone it h as been on right lines. This is exceet 1ingly satisfactory as speaks well for tl ie management of the,Hj|r,bo«r ) Boar4 a* A its adTilifl' in tie past. The portion of the repert that is of most important> and whiijhwill be read with the great - est interesj is whore he proceeds to advise tSe'Beard future,^ltf common'wa'otherr)art'sl of the colony Waitara is feeling fhn effects oj t|e wave of prosperity no » the colony and the in.-i of the port makes some* J improvemeak an abspluto, necessity dfl the trades* to be «ldi....Xilsi mbsfe| river har|gurs the Harbour Board hasij two difficulties to contend with, viz. J the bar and the river channel, and nn-<j less the improvements to the one keej>| pace with the improvements to th tj other money is liable to be wasted!.] Mr. Marchant appears to consider tha tj enough has been done at the mouth o E< the river for the present and that the*. Harbour Board should move in the»j I direction of improving the ohannel..l Mr. Marchant handles this question J with undoubted ability, but at the same<| time we would urge upon the Board. tbf neeessity of proceeding very cautiously in the matter. River channels are often very difficult to deal with and it is a question whether it would not be wiser to carry the railway line to a point below the difficulty referred to and for the Harbour Board to expend all its energies and funds on improving the mouth of the river. A somewhat similar case occurred at Wanganui where for years a continual struggle has gone on between those favouring the improvement of the bar and those in favour of improving the channel. Acting on the advice of an eminent Engineer the latter party expended some £60,0,00 in improving the channel and erecting some 3 to 4 miles of training walls only to find that it had not oniy had very little effect in improving the channel but made the bar if anything worse than before so that vessels that could get up the river could not get in. Since then the Board has confined its attention mostly to the improvement of tho bar. A railway lias been pat down to Castle Oliff where quite a tovfn has grown up and vessels uau discharge all or a portion of their cargo th&re, la the case of the Waitara River there is umplo room for wharfs and all the requirements for shipping josii inside the mouth of the , river and we believe we are pretty correct in saying that even now at high

tide any vessel that can get over the bar can get ap the river.