WAIWAKAIHO BRIDGE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13540, 18 October 1907, Page 3

WAIWAKAIHO BRIDGE.

OFFICIAL OPENING.

A MEMORABLE FUNCTION.

The official opening of the Waiwakaiho Bridge at Fitzroy was favoured with glorious weather. Few bridges, if any, in the whole of the province of Taranaki have a history so interesting as the old puriri bridge which untiJ a few nonths ago spanned the Waiwakaiho River at this inlet to New Plyniouth. Many interesting chapters could be written of the hardships and fortitudes »ndured by the pioneer settlers of the district before any bridge was provided lcross the river, and of the difficulties experienced in the erection of the puriri >ridge which stood for so many years, md also boro testimony to the engineering skill of those indentified with its construction. Taking all these circ'uinstances into consideration, it is not surprising that the new bridge, introducing as it does a now system of bridgo- ) building into the province, has created | .videsproad interest. [ At the opening ceremony thero was a I . r ery large and representative gather- ( ing. On all hands one could hear the I aarly settlers, both women and- men^ 'elating interesting reminiscences of I colonial life of more than half a century I igo, to the youngor generations. Fully ive hundred people were present, in- ' eluding the members of the Taranaki i County Council, New > Plymouth ttorough Council, and representatives of local bodies of Waitara, Clifton County, Inglewood, and .Stratford. There was a plentiful display of bunting, and altogether a very animated jceno was presented. MESSAGES OF CONGRATULATION. Mr J. Brown, Chairman of the Cojinty Council, announced several apologies for absence. Hon. T. Kelly wired — "Regret owing j; to Parliamentary duties cannot attend opening of bridge, the piers of which 1 uiporintended the swinging of cylinders when bridge was re-built." ' Mr .T. K. Skinner wired — "Regret inability to attend opening ceremony ' Waiwakaiho Bridge. I congratulate ! your; Council and engineer for adopting ] ferro-concreto for bridge construction - purposes, and hope the same material ' \rill be used for all future important ' engineer works." 1 Mr H. J. Okey, M.H.R., in a letter of apology, said — "The Council is to be' < complimented upon building such a per- 1 manent structure. I have always been c of opinion that to build those bridges 1 in the way the Council is doing must 1 moan such a saving in repairs that they i »rill in a few year 3 be able to consider- Ti ibly reduce the general rate." a LOOKING BACKWARD. J Councillor Hill read a brief history of the Waiwakaiho Bridge as supplied him ; by Mr R. Street, one of the early set- ! tiers, who was engaged on the construe- - tion of 'the old puriri bridge recently .dismantled. This stated — T '<The old bridge was built by Messrs Rundle, Brooking, and .Clare in 1857. Mr Richard Street, his brother John. 5 and William Rundle were the tradesmen employed. The first puriri ireo \. was felled on Mr Tom Clare's birthday, ' and on his birthday one year after they 1 swept the floor of the bridge and finished — about half the time sawing and M ijie other' half building. The timber a was cut between the Waiwakaiho and r Mangaoraka Rivers. The bulk of it r ' came from the Smart and Egmont a Koads. Some of the sawing pits are to a be seen to this day. Mr William Rundle ° and Mr R. Street trimmed witli the s^ adze puriri lags twenty-four feet long 8 by three feet square. The reason for w this was that Mr Street's mate, John *' Phillips, had met with an accident. ir John Street and James Harvey were mates at sawing together, with William E and Richard Rundle, Samuel Rogers, * ( and others. These were Mr Rundle's' a men. Mr Brooking had charge of the '>' ironwork, and went to Sydney to get it. Mr Clare's men were Thomas lc Wheeler, John Lander, E. Shaw, a man g named Smythe, old Bill Jones, and tl others. The late W. Ballantyne was st also employed at all sorts, splicing riv- S etc, etc. Mr Joseph Street did .the ir hlaoksmithing, having his forge about w the entrance to where Glenavon now is. ii These wore almut all that worked at the ti original bridge. There were others — ci they were not stickers, only off and on. Mr Rundle was the sole contractor for tl the re-erection, and Tom Inch and Win. di King helped to do the sawing this time, as some of the posts were washed away o j and lost. Mr S. Rundle and Mr Tom p] Clare wore working at this. I have seen j,. the Waiwakaiho flat under water three times. Mrs Richardson, mother-in-law a^ of the late William King, who was mur- y^ dered by the" Natives, was very fond of g. crossing the bridge, walking from joist n to joist, sometimes helped across by Mr Street, although his hands were often . covered with tar." ' | r The Chairman of the County Council delivered a short address. He said ) i] that occasion marked a new era in . bridge building. There was no doubt *] that the old bridge in its time had been '*" a fine structure — (hear, hear) — but he ventured to say the present one was better. Continuing, Councillor Browne said the Council decided to raise a loan p for the purpose of building bridges oft p roads under the jurisdiction of the tl Council. Meetings were held at vari- ci ous centres ijiroughout the cotinty and v< a poll taken on January 7th, 1903. T There were two thousand ratepayers' F (names on the rolls and 808 of these gave votes, 5^2 being in favour of the pro- r< posal and 216 against. At Inglewood y< and New Plymouth solid votes were ci cast in favour of the loan, and at Wai- ii tara there was a solid vote against it. A Since inaugurating the present scheme | of bridge reconstruction the Council o: had constructed one bridge with concrete piers and wood decking, two steel bridges, and nine reinforced concrete bridges. a The comparison of the cost of steel a bridges with that of reinforced concrete was decidedly in favour of the latter. The Waiwakaiho reinforced ooncrete n bridge coBt £7 10s per running foot or ft 10s per square foot. There were 600 fi yds of concrete and 35 tons of steel uti- a lised in the erection of the Waiwakaiho t bridge. The question of durability had \ to be taken into consideration, and the n continual cost of painting the steel t bridges. Undoubtedly reinforced beam I bridges similar to the Oakura were the cj cheapest bridges. Proceeding, Council- \ lor Brown said he thought if anyone f could claim to be the father of concrote bridges in Taranaki he coulcj. (Ap- a plause.) Ho had advocated this class c of bridge from the tinfe they erected f

the iirst steol bridge, for ho recognised that the annual cost of keeping the steel bridges in order was heavy. The contract price for the Waivrakaiho bridge was £3200, which included the cost of pulling down the old bridge and erecting the temporary bridge. They had to thank the New Plymouth Borough Council for the manner in which it had met the County Council over the erection of the bridge, contributing £500 towards the cost. (Applause.) The total loan authorised by the ratepayers in connection with the scheme of bridge reconstruction was £12,900, and of this sum £10,729 had already been expended. 'He had only one fault to find with the late chairman of the Council, and that was that the loan was not large? enough. Mr Okey had piloted the loan through very well, but they had a large number of bridges still in 'the county that would have to lie attended to, and ho did not see how they were going to meet the expenditure unless they entered into negotiations for another loan. It would take years to do them out of ordinary revenue, and this would also mean a big drawback on the county's funds. He believed in giving credit where credit was due, and would like to take that opportunity of paying a tribute to the manner in which Mr Skinner had carried out the instructions of the Council. When it was first decid»d to rebuild the bridge and the plans and specifications were being prepared I Lho Council gave their engineer explicit I instructions that they did not require a structure with a lot of ornamentation. They desired a bridge capable of carrying all the traffip of the district, [n this ho thought'Mr Skinner had been successful. Ho had also provided them ivith a Handsome bridge withoxit introducing useless ornamentation. (Applause.) OTHER SPEECHES. Councillor G.. Tate made a few renarks as the oldest member of the Taranaki County Council. When a boy sight years of age ho ha/i lived in that iistrict, and he well remembered the jonstruction of the first bridge. It was pleasing to him to be present on that occasion as the member of the Council under whose chairmanship they saw the introduction of ferro-concrete bridges. He gave credit to Mr Skinner, the Council's engineer, for having the grit so tackle this class of structure. (Applause.) Mr W. H. Foreman! (chairman of the Ulifton County Council) said that when 10 had been in his teens he had-,fre-juefttly crossed the river driving a hillock cart and assisted in a simple way ;o cart some of the puriri from the Egnont .Road to buikl the old bridge vhich had just been replaced. As far is bridge building and road making vere concerned they were getting into jotter fimes: * There was no question )f the immense cost of wooden bridges, end even the special timber that was t low being shipped from Australia for ;hoir erection in various parts soon be;an to decay. Looking at tliat bridge, lowever, they could not but be impressid that they had something there that rould last. The Taronaki County Council was io bo congratulated on beng about the first local body in New Zealand to take up the erection of •ridges in reinforced concrete. The Council were cortainly favoured for | rork of that kind inasmuch as they had i good supply of stone in all their •ivers. Unfortunately in the county he ■epresentt'd they were not so favouribly placed in that respect. They were iway from what he might call the influ>nce of Mount Egmont, and had no tone in their rivers, and only inferior gravel at long intervals. Mr Skinner vas a Taranakf boy, and he was glad o see him coming to the front in this nanner. (Applause.) The Mayor of New Plymouth (Mr )ockrill) extended his congratulations o the County Council, the engineer, md the contractor on the magnificent >ridge they had provided. (Applause.) Mr Liardot, representing Stratford ocal bodies, said the district could congratulate itself on being so prosperous ;hat it could find the money to erect such a bridge. His message from the Stratford people was that they hoped n a *cry fe}«- years' time the structure x'ould not be large enough, to cany the ncreased produce and traffic of the disrict and that it would be necessary to enlarge it. (Applause.) Mr Jenkins (Waitara) congratulated he district on having such an up-to-late Council. Mr BroAvn (Inglewood Borough Coun•il) said he considered Inglewood had slaved a great part in those proceedngs. In the first place they had sent :hoir Town Clerk to manage the finance iff airs of the County "Council.Then Mr. ftrown to act as chairman, and now Mr Spencer to build the bridge for them 'Laughter ajid applause.) The contractor (Mr L. G. P., Spencer) n the course of a few remarks said he !ia»l never seen more faithful work |>nt into a job than that in the old >ridge. (Applause.) The Council had ilso faithful work in the present bridge. [Applause.) WORKERS OF THE OLD BRIDGE HONOURED. Inscribed walking ( sticks made of puriri from the old bridge were then presented to those old settlers still in the district who were engaged in its erection: — Messrs J. Lander, J. Harvey, R, Street, W. Bundle, T. Clare, T. Inch, S. Rogers, S. Bundle, H. Faull and W. Brooking. Mr Clare responded on behalf of the recipients. He said this time about 50 years' ago they were engaged on the erection of the old bridge, the opening ceremony of which took place in August of 1859. They could not have given them more suitable mementoes of the occasion. THE RIBBON CUT. Mrs H. Okey then severed the ribbon and declared the bridge open for traffic amid cheers. A UNIQUE PROCESSION. Mrs Skinner, mother of Mr J. Skinner the engineer, Mrs Black, aunt, and Mr Skinner himself who approximately fifty years ago crossed the old bridge in a bullock waggon, afterwards crossed the bridge in the latest mode of /conveyance in the Dominion, an up to date motor car. The members of the^Dounty Council and builders of the puriri bridge followed in a bullock waggon ! drawn by two oxen. For a time there J was a constant stream of traffic to and fro. Refreshments were served. The arrangements Were admirably carried out by the committee in charge of the function Messrs Hill, Tate, and Skin-

ner assisted by the County Clerk (Mr R. Ellis).

A public luncheon was held on Thursday, August 18th, 1859, at the Waiwakaiho, to commemorate the completion of the bridge. In the evening a ball was held at the Masonic Hotel.