THE EASTERN MOLE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13314, 17 June 1907, Page 2

THE EASTERN MOLE.

SHOULD IT BE RAISED? SOME NEGATIVE REPLIES. | Pursuing his'search for answers to the .above 'iufetioii, from these who might be expected to be able to give an answer, and a recoil or reasons lor it, our reporter approached -Mr David Stuart, who was- for • sunte. years a- member of the Harbour Board* and has been it:; chaiiman, and who has shown a lively interest in the various staoes of the development of the harbour works. Mr Stuart is decidedly of opinion that it is not liecesiaa-v to raise the mole, i' -cce'pt for a. short distance fi om the short end, to prevent .the-shingle-going over it Raisin" it alone, bv mean!; ot large blocks, would not entirely stop the shingle passing from one side to the other, as it would be drifted through large crevices between the .stones. It- would therefore.be necessary to pack these with small stones on thewether side, when the b'g stones had .sellh-d down in their place--. He did not think it- Louss-ai v to raise the mole, from a shipping: point" .of view. At all events that had not been proved, and no harm ■ coul I be done by waiting a year or two, to make sure of the nece sity for it. Mr Ktuart states his opinions more hilly as follows :- "In the permanent interests-of the harbour. I am not aware of any sound reasons for immediately raising the height of the outer rubble wall, throughout its entire ■leiH'Lh. Since the last heavy sea I have been out. to the end, and I failed to see a- jonole stone that bore the appearance of having b:en shifted by that storm. I am of opinion that we may expect much heavier seas from oceanic storms, and that the wind, was a disturbing factor just before the Kaikoura left port. I can imagine the effect of the south we-.t- gale on,her beam and top hamper, in the light condition she was. It mav be desirable to raise the height of the "shore end of the extension to the"level ot the rails, to hint- conditions at the -junction of the- moles, for a distance say not ecceceamg fibO feet. The VVexport Harbour Board have laised the shore end of I.their mole to the level of the original staging. " vYnen th:- Board is down the rubble for the back-filling of the new wharf at the north mole, the heavy stuff lying reserved at the quarries can be brought down and tipped at the butt—or anywhere along the extension—that, is, if a majority of the Board favour* Mr T. D. Young's views. The Board has six miles of railway, with cranes, engines, and rolling stock, a long lease of the quarries, and 1 fail to see how all" this is going to rot in a year or two, because the Board jiappens to* be engaged with other work.' The new members are shaping very well and 1 think they'might be allowed to waim their . ; eats lx-.lf.re committing themselves to costly problems which have many bearings, and require mature consideration. Messrs Bell, Maxwell. Hay, and Raw-son have all written many thoughtful pages, warning us that- the danger"to Timaru'Harbour is a futuie one—namely, the encroachment of the fine silt. New "men can seek a lesson in Caroline Bay. My opinion, is that the occasional heavy seas* from the south rolling over the rubble wall, will prove to be , the haibour's life-giver, in scouring the silt to the north." "There is veiy little to justify all the talk we hear about- a 'range' at- the wharves disturbing vessels after the.v are moored now. Twice a year would perhaps now cover all the complaints of shipmasters from that source, and theprompt finpayment of extra labour to attend to the hawsers on such occasions, might prevent any chance, of complaints increasing, or the blame being laid on the- Board. Holding the views I do on-fine siit, I would be° dHionest to succeeding ratepayers, *"• for the sake of a few years-peace in my time. I. advocated raising the mole to a. height thatswould '•increase, both their trouble and their rates." Mr T. D. Young can, of course, give to the Board directly, his opinion that the mole should be raised; and his reasons for holding that opinion, but happening to meet him. our representative inquired what those reasons were. Mr Young said he th'.'turhL the whole mole sought to be raided, to the level of the rails if possible, in orde'r to strengthen it- against all risk of future accident, anrl to give smoother wateri. in the harbour, by preventing seas going over it as th-ev do now in heavy weather. And it should be done now when they had everything ready. He disagreed with those who" said it would be a waste of money. He believed in making it so strong that no seas could break through or damage it, and every stone added would be an advanta"e. ' He.', expected there would yet be s-oiiie subsidence and believed there had been some subsidence aheady. At anyrate the wall'-was only live or six feet above high water in many places, and in others it wa.s very narrow on the top. In talking over the question with steamship captains he had met only one, Captain Jaggard of the Kuapehu, w'lio said the mole need not lie raise.i. (Mr Young mentioned that Captain Jaggard had expressed surprise that a steep-skied reclamation had been made in the west side of the harbour. "For heaven's s.Lke," he said, " don't repeat that on this side or we"ll never be able to He here.") The moie must be raised at the shoie end anyhow, continued Mr Young, to stop the shingle. The shingle wa.s now further out on the inside than on the putside. It was visible at. low'water .to the twelfth bay—3ooft. .Mr ' Young admitted, the suggestion that raising the mole would not affect north-east seas ; but these, he said wt-ie not important, they occurred so seldom, once every two years, perhaps. He belis-ved the mole would have to be laived, and his contention wa', "Raise it while you have the plant"•-,,-, .-/•' After this talk with Mr Young, our representative accompanied' him and Mr Bay::es to the end of the mole, and the latter pointed out several things on the way. One of these was the weakness of the" inner side of the mole over a considei - able length, including the curve, owing to the use of .'tones too small to bear any shock of sea.s. (This weal-'-ess was proved during the construction of the work by a heavy sea that, tumbling over the. top, gouged out the light rubble and spread it out flat to same distance. from the line of piling.) Mr Baynea was also of opinion that-there had been a waste of stone.-by tipping over the north tide of the staging. Mr Craigie, the chairman, had previously suggested to our representative, that he should go along and compare the latest work, done under Mr Baynes, with the earlifst work, and notice how well the covering stones w,re packed in the former, and how roughly tumbled together they were in the latter." The result is that th? mnie at the cuter end is as evtn and rounded—•" hogbacked"—a mound as could be made -with I large blocks of stone. The difference is evident enough. The big covering stones at the outer end have been, as Mi- Baynes pointed out. judiciously tipped,so that they are " keved" agaim-t disturb ince by seas. This pai't of the mo'e. it is true, has not been tried by such a heavy sea- as damaged the mole at the curve when the pile staging was cairied away, but it looks as if it could stand such si sea without injuiy. The capping blocks on both sides are large, such as. even if not- keying each other, would take a strong force to move them. The stones that were disturbed at and near the curve wre much smaller, some of them weighing very few hundredweights instead of tons. The stones in the surface left after the disturbance are now nearly all of them in such positions that they afford support to each other, in. a. way suggesting that i: would be difficult for a sea to shift ih in. There are. however, a few to be seen that do not seem to be securely backed up. and the fact that these retained

their place is proof-that subsequent seas have not been able to shift them. On the other hand, there are- two or three good sized blocks now in the-'water' at high tide which appear—their ' surfaces- being free from weeds—to have been quite recently put there. Discussing.the question of the sufliciency of the height of the mole in relation- to "range" and " scend" in the- inner harbour, Mr Baynes declared that it was impossible for "the small quantity of water that coudlget over'the mole to affect the harbour. It was -a. fact that at the time the seas were pouring over th? mole in the storm of la.s-t month, there was a range in the harbour, but it was due, he said, to the wave passing the end of -,he Eastern Mole setting up a "wave towards the har= hour, a' phenomenon well understood in marine, engineering.* The water thrown over the mole merely set. up a surface ripple, that could have no effect at all on the inner harbour. The obstruction of the wave, by the mole had another effect, in causing a compression of the wave, so that a volume, of water was thrown forward, round-the end, setting up a current in the sheltered water that ran towards Caroline Bay; Mr Baynes stated that he went out. to'the end. of the mole while, the heavy sea was running, and threw in a float at-the end,- and another at the; curve. The former chifted away with the current, and tha latter scarcely moved at all. So far a« effect on the- range inside the haibour was concerned, Mr Baynes maintained; that- there was no need to raise the mole. So far as strengthening, some weak spot.s to prevent the shifting of insufficiently unsupported stones where small stuff had been gouged out, there might be a little to do, and her>- and there the jack could b> usefully applied to stones already in the mole. The jack, said Mr Bayne>\ had been very useful in getting blocks into good positions during the construction of the mole. Apart from officers and servants of the Board, whose opinions can be ascertained by the Board i-self, there is probably no man in Timaru who lias had a closer practical acquaintance with range in the harbour than Mr I. J. Bradley, w-ho has been for twenty-seven years boatman and wharf manager for the Union Company. That he has b:en taught by his experience is evident from a remark "he made to our representative : " When' I see, a sea getting up I say to myself 'That's going to give us some . trouble to-day,' or ' Tnat's not going to bother us.' It all depends on the direction of the sea. A sea coming well from the south does not cause any •trouble, but one from the. east or thereabouts will do, so, because the new mole does not cut. it off so well. A nor' easter is. worse, of course,' becares it conns straight in, but we don't have many big si-a-s from north east." ■■■,.■■ Asked w-hat he thought about raising the height- of the mole, Mr Bradley emphatically declared that it" would be a waste of money. It was not required. If anything of that sort was done it. should only be the outer part. To raise, the shore end part would be. a shameful waste of money. The range that, came in from the sea la«fe month and-made the Kaikoura break -two pile-heads was due to the sea being east-erly—-''it- broke, nearly square, on the outerarm of the 'mole, .and- that gives the direction." The water that' came over had nothing to do with.it.' That made only a bit of a jobble on, the surface. What made the rango was the sea running past the end of the mole. ''lt would b=> a shame to waste money on that job," re* peattd Mr Bradley in conclusion. " Better spend it on a new wharf." '