The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY. FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 1882.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 4069, 16 June 1882, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY. FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 1882.

Our Waitara correspondent wired at 1.50 to-day that the s.s. Macgregor, from Onehunga, had arrived off the bar, but was too late for the tide. Rewi is a passenger by her. The s.s. Macgregor arrived off the Waitara bar at noon, she will ctors to-night's tide, and leave Waitara for Manukau tomorrow morning as per advertisement. A correspondent, signing himself an " Ex-volunteer," writes to the Wanganui Herald —" Would it be possible to get a Commission in Lunacy on the Board of Officers who lately reported on the volunteer system in New Zealand." Mr. E. M. Boynten, whom the New York Sun describes as a Brooklyn inventor, and who hails from Massachusetts, has patented what he terms a bicycle railroad, by which he expects to revolutionise the present system of railroads, and to enable people to travel at the rate of 150 miles an hour. The nominations of candidates for the seat in the County Council, rendered vacant by the resignation of Mr. H. D. Vavasour, have to be made before noon on Monday next, the toll-house, Omata, being the place appointed for tho papers to be left at. A poll for the election of five members for the Raleigh Town Board will take place on Monday next, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. The following have been nominated as candidates : —Tames Bavly, Thomas Drynan, Thomas Bayly, Adam Lile. Matthew Jones, Alfred Parkinson, Daniel Telfar, and William Tutty. The West Coast Commissioner notifies purchasers of compensation scrip for land north of the Waingongoro, for which Crown grants have not been issued, are requested to attend at the Commissioner's Office, near the Railway Station, New Plymouth, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday next, when their claims will be investigated. During the hearing of an application for an order of probate in the District Court yesterday His Honor said it was astonishing- how careless people were about making their wills. The will upon which tho application was founded was written upon an old musty piece of paper, and was not in proper legal form. This had entailed additional expense in obtaining an order of probate, and had caused great delay. Indeed had it not been that a persoa was at last found after a number of yeara who could supply the necessary information the will would have been absolutely usclcbk, and it would have been very difficult and expensive for those entitled to the property under tho will to have obtained it.

MR. CARRINGTON'S VIEWS ON

THE HARBOUR. As we were unable to give the whole of Mr. Carrington's remarks in our report of the last meeting of the Harbour Board, we have published them separately :—: — Mr. Chairman ani> Gentlemen, — In moving the motion standing in my name, I have thought it best to put in writing the remarks I am about to make, in order that it may be clearly seen and known that the drift sand with which we have been troubled of late, to the detriment of progress with our work, ought never to have been allowed to take place ; nnd further I beg leave to say that it can be easily obviated if attended to. I shall commence my remarks by briefly alluding to my connection with the making of a harbour at New Plymouth from its earliest date, in January, 1841. Between the 9th and 13th January, 1841, more than forty-one years ago, I made a survey and plan of the Sugar Loaf Islands, which I sent to the Managing Director of the Plymouth New Zealand Company by the hands of Captain McLean, of the barque 1 William Bryant, the first emigrant ship that arrived here, which vessel left this place on the 6th May, 1841. This survey T made for the purpose of showing the I Directors of the said Company the facilities I which existed here for the making of a | first-class harbour. I afterwards made a more minute survey and topographical map of the Sugar Loaf Islands and coast, | as far as the Waiwakaiho river, which, on I my arrival in England in 1844, I caused to j be engraved at my own expense, for the ; purpose of enabling me to confer, on known ] data, with distinguished engineers in reference to the making of a harbour at one of the sites which offered between the Sugar Loaves and the Huatoki river. I now submit this said engraved map for the inspection of the Board. I had various interviews on this harbor matter with different engineers, and finally on the 18th September, 1856, a short time before my departure from England, I made a satisfactory arrangement with Sir John Rennie for the constructing and carrying out of the work on most favorable terms, which, on my arrival in New Zealand, was allowed to lapse from circumstances over which I had no control. Tn July, 1858, I addressed a letter through the Governor and Government (fide pamphlet, page 28) for submission to the Home Government, in the hope of getting our harbor constructed by means of convict labor, as was done at Portland, Holyhead, and other parts of the kingdom; this, as you all well know, was frustrated through the influence which at a later period opposed it. In 1863, I placed in the Survey Office, in New Plymouth, one of my engraved mapq, upon which I had marked my proposed harbor at the Sugar Loaves ; and I also showed upon the same map where a harbor could be made at small cost opposite to the town, and capable of accommodating steamers and small craft. I used my hest endeavors to direct attention to thi3 map, and I myself pointed out and explained to the then Superintendent and other gentlemen how the work could be progressively carried out. (See letter to Colonial Secretary, 18th August, 186G, page 3.) In the year 1864, Mr. Doyne (Doyne & Balfour, Marine Engineers), .it the request of the then Superintendent, Major Brown, visited New Plymouth, for the purpose of giving their opinion as to the making of a harbour here. I called upon Mr. Doyne, and, at the invitation of Major Brown, accompanied those gentlemen to the Sugar Loaves, for the purpose of inspection and remarks upon the locality. I also gave Mr. Doyne a copy of my engraved map, upon which I had projected my proposed harbour at the Sugar Loaves. I likewise gave him permission to make use of it in anj' way he thought proper, and I gave him written answers to questions which he put to mo and other information, as may be seen by reference to the letter which I addressed to the honorable the Colonial Secretary on the 18th August, 1866. One paragraph in the letter is as follows : — " I therefore respectfully request that yon will do me the favor of comparing my proposed harbour and survey of the Sugar Loaves, which I made in 1843, with the survey and proposed harbour laid down by Messrs. Doyne & Balfour — the project is the same." It is much to be regretted that no action was taken upon the favorable report made by Messrs. Doyne & Balfour. In 1869 I became Superintendent of Taranaki, but it was not until near the close of the year 1873 that a favorable opportunity presented itself for urging our harbour cause. About that period I received a letter from the then Premier, in which he stated that, "in present circumstances, Taranaki is unable to take advantage of the immigration scheme to the extent designed." The difficulty of inducing the owners of ships to send their vessels here almost barred the getting of emigrants sent to Taranaki. I therefore, on the 29th December, 1873, replied to that letter, and demonstrated what in all fairness ought to be done for this place; and on my addressing the Provincial Council of Taranaki in 1874, I placed my letter of the 29th De ccmber before them, when they requested me to have it published in the Gazette, with the address I at that time made to them. Shortly after writing my letter of 29th December, 1873, I visited Wellington and had an interview with the Premier, which was very satisfactory, uh may bo seen by reference to Hansard. When, in the House of Representatives, in August, 1874, I moved the second reading of the New Plymouth Harbour Bill, the Government stated that " they had no objection to allow the bill to pass." The bill was passed by the Legislature, and provided that one-fourth of the land fund of Taranaki might be appropriated for the purposo of making a harbour, if so approved by a bill to be passed by the Provincial Council of Taranaki; which bill was duly passed. In November, 1875, Messrs. Carruthers and Blackett, tho Chief and Marine Engii neers of the Government, visited Taranaki , for the purpose of selecting a site for our proposed harbour, which at that time the Government proposed to carry out with convict labour — the prison site being determined on ; — and after inspecting the coast and examining the character of the rocks, and the facilities which offered for the making of a harbour, they determined on the site now adopted, which was afterwards approved by Sir John Coode; tho modus operand i for the carrying out of the work as first proposed was by an incline tramway from Paritutu to tho breakwater, by which means the rock would have been conveyed without difficulty to its place for deposit. SubBequcntly, however, after running a drive into tho Paritutu, it was found that the rock though firm-class for the making of concrete, was not suitable for rubble work

it being fractured and disintegrated, so that, large blocks, as was necessarily required, could not be obtained — hence the change from rubble to concrete work, which change has also been approved by Sir John Coode and the Government. This change from rubble to concrete it was absolutely requisite to make, as is now further proved by the working of the quarries. And, now, I must be pardoned for the observations • I am about to make, and for again repeating that which I have so often urged by every means in my power since tfi'iß change from, rubble to concrete, and the ! modus operandi for carrying out die work was determined. I urged my views at the I time, and at various times, at the Board table; and on the Ist March, 1880, 1 put the same in writing, for which I received the Board's thanks; but, beyond this, no action has been taken for joining Mikotahi with the laiid, and thereby stopping the drift of sand, which, if further neglected, will geriausly dam our harbor. This said letter of the Ist March was written eleven months before the foundation stone of our harbor was laid, and appeared in the Taranaki Herald of the sth March, 1880. The whole design for our harbor works, as originally projected and planned by Messrs. Carruthers and Blackett and Sir J. Coode, in no way interfered with the time worn formation of the small cove between the Fishing Rock and the Island of Mikotahi, and the amount of drift prior to the commencing our concrete works was insignificant in the extreme when compared to that which has since and will continue to take place if not attended to. • This small cove lies immediately to the west of our harbour works, and is now greatly encroached upon by the large quantity of sand, earth, clay, and debris thrown into it from the heavy cutting made in constructing the railway from the root of the harbour to the quarries and from the quarries also. Between the Mikotahi and the northern point of the blockyard, a distance of six chains and seventy links, which is dry at low-water, there is at times a strong current, which, together with the heavy seas that sweep along 'the curve of the cove in westerly gales, is fast carrying all that has been deposited by our railway cutting and debris from the quarries into our harbour — hence tho cause of the sand with which we have been troubled for some little time past ; and unless immediate steps be taken to prevent this, which can be done at a comparatively small cost, our harbour works will prove to be unnecessarily costly till we reach the curve of the work in the open way. Moreover, it will greatly lessen, as it is now doing, the depth of water within the harbour, because i the drift sand from the care impinges on our now constructed work, and in part sweeps round the head of the pier and settles down on the east or inner side of the harbour, the remaining portion of tho drift takes its onward course for a short distance in the line of the work till diffused in the offing. I now therefore again urge and importune the Board to attend to this matter, and I move, " That it is desirable and important for the constructing and well-being of our harbour that Mikotahi be joined to the mainland." Fred. A. Carringtoh, Topographical and Engineering Surveyor. New Plymouth Harbour Board, June 13th, 1882. Note. — The above matter came before the New Plymouth Harbour Board on the day it was written, when they decided that my recommendation should not be adopted, and inasmuch as the same has in part only been published in tho Tab vnaki llkrald of the 14th instant, I consider that in all fairness I am entitled to publish in extenso the statements which I have put before the Board, in order that my ideas and recommendation may be clearly understood before any outside opinions be expressed, or conclusions arrived at by professional men or others. And now I will further state that I am prepared to show and demonstrate on the ground to any marine engineer or topographical and engineering surveyor, from that which I have carefully observed, that the mass of the sand with which we are troubled at the head of our breakwater, and which I say is lessening tho depth of water in our harbour, and very greatly increasing the cost of the work, is caused by the sand and debris having been thrown from our railway cutting made to our quarries and from the quarries into the cove, which lies immediately to the west of our Harbour Works, which cove, be it known, in open to the full force of our westerly gales and to the very heaviest seas with which we have to contend, which wind and Reas carry before it — between the island of Mikotahi and our blockyard — all debris, which debris is obstructed and decoyed alongside our concrete harbour structure, and thus it is diverted and forced on by the heavy overflow of westerly seas, and thus heads our work — hence tho deep sand at the end of our pier and onwards, find this it is which is now entailing an unwarrantable and unnecessary cost to our work — unwarrantable, because it should never have been allowed ; and unnecessary, because it could have been easily averted. I will now give n verified proof of that which I have stated, by briefly remarking that prior to our late heavy westerly gales the island of Mikotahi was well nigh joined to our Harbour Works, the sand wai within a foot of tho top of the Rea wall which joins the block-yard. The formation of this accumulated mass of sand T had carefully observed ; it was gradually formed by the driving of the sea into the cove, where the debris existed, which was thence carried, by the same force, between tho island of Mikotahi and our block-ynrd, until it joined the root of our harbour, and reaching in some places to within a foot of the top of the wall. Many persons thought that the Mikotahi would shortly be joined to our works, so that it would be no longer an island. A westerly gale came on with heavy sea, and swept the greater portion of this accumulated sand to the depth of six feet into the water heading our work, the consequence was that the western or outer side of our concrete harbour work was scoured to the very foundation, which had to be repaired, and the eastern or inner side of our pier was lessened in depth some four feet. No bettor proof can possibly be adduced in confirmation of that which I have written. Frkp. A. Carrinqton, Topographical Engineer and Member [ of New Plymouth Harbour Board. i June IG, 1882. Of all the determined suicides overheard of, one which occurred in some metal works at Birmingham is the most terrible The man left his work, and " walking to some machinery which was going at a high speed, deliberately jumped into it." His end, of course, was instantaneous. But what amazing resolution such a step must have involved.