WANGANUI HARBOUR BOARD.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11848, 22 July 1893, Page 2

WANGANUI HARBOUR BOARD.

Special Meeting A special meeting oil the Wanganui Harbour Board was hold yesterday afternoon. Present— Meisis Ihatcher (chairman), Hatrick, Higgle, Sommerville, Campbell Stevenson, and F. E Jackson. Tiie Caaiimin expluined that the principal, business before the Board was the consideration of the report of tho Committee on ways nnd means adjourned4fe from last meeting, and to consider certain information which he would place before them from Messrs A. Filmer and 0. W. Freeman, of the United States Assistant Engineei at Portland, Oregon, as to methods of bar improvement in which tbose gentlemen were oagaged at on th 6 Columbia River. He (Mr Thatcher) would Buggest that they take this matter first, as they should, of course, go into committee for the discussion of way* and means. The suggestion wa9adopted,and Mr Thatcher proceeded to road the letters he had received. The first was from Mr A. Filiner, dated Portland, Oregon, U.S.A., May 18th, 1893, and gave some general information as to the writer's experience of contraction dykes, and for. warding plans and specifications of the dyke 3 which have been build on the Columbia River, The second letter, from Mr Freeman, goes more fully into details, and reads as under ; — May 17th, 1893. T. Thatcher, Esq. (Chairman Wanganui Harbour B>ard). Deak Sik:— Mr Filmer of Portand, Oregon, informs ma that you contemplate improving the Harbour of Wanganui and especially the bar at the mouth of the river by the jetty system. At his suggestion I write you, briefly Btating the results that have bean accomplished in improving the mouth of the Columbia river and the channel between Portland and the sea by this method. Before entering upon this subject, I tvould respectfully state that I have been engaged on river and harbour workß for the past ten years. I :raß connected with the jetty work at the mouth of the Columbia from its inception, and remained in local charge until the engineering problem was prac tically solved. I was the engineer in charge of the contraction dyke 3 built in the Columbia and Willamette rivers by the port of Portland, and tun at present designing and superintending the construction of a sea going suction dredge, to be used in the general scheme of the Columbia river improvement. Tha jetty at the mouth of the Columbia river.— The project on which this work is being carried on was adoptod in 1884. It contemplates providing a channel across the Columbia river bar, having a depth of 30 feet at mean low tide. This is to be effected by contracting the water flowing on the bar, and increasing the resultant current to such a degree as to procure the desired depth. Any rvork for accomplishing tiiis end must be tentative in its character. The, work whick is now\ .- in progress, is the building of a low tide jetty, starting from Fort Stevens, in the South Cape, and extending in a westerly direction with a slight curve to the south out across Clatsop spit for a distance of 45 miles, more or less, as circumBtances may require, to a point about three miles Bouth of Cape Disappointment, four and a quarter miles is now built. The jetty is constructed of stane resting upon a mattress (made of fascines) foundation, about 40 feet wide and from two and a half to five feet thick. The stone extends to a level of four feat above mean low tide. The material ha 9 been placed in position i'rom a jetty tramway, supported upon piles driven along the line of the jotty, and about 24 feet above the level of low tide. The tramway is a double track three foot gauge rail road, the tracks being 13 feet between centres. The material is laudad at a wharf and transported to places ou theso bracks, which are built in advance of the lniin work. Before the coinnjencsment of this work, the channel or channels on the bar were very capricious in location and v I variable in depth. The depths were I usually from 19 to i.'C feet and the chan- \ nela varied in number from ona to three, and in location, through nearly 180ieg. f romCapa Disappointment to Poit Adams. The results of the jetty already constructed are very marked in building up Clatsop Spit, and in the effects produced by the concentration of water upon the bar. There is now a straight out and in channel, having a width of a quarter of a mile, with a depth no less than 29 feet, and for a width of a mile a depth of 27 feet, and the distance batween tho 30 foot curves is now 1200 feet, while before the commencement of the improvement it was over 3000 feet. The total amount expended up to data is 5 1 337,500, and it will probably need about $660,000 more to complete the work, making the total cost about $2,000,000 or .£403,000. There has been used in the construction of the tramway and its repairs 377,6(50 lineal feet of piling and 2,223,580 feat, bare measurement, of lumber. The cost of the tramway has bean $550 per lineal foot. There ha 3 bean used 18,414 cords (128 cubic feet per cord) of fascines. The mattre3S work in place has co3t Si'oO par lineal foot. Mr Filmar informs me that ha vill 6end you a copy of the Engineering Magazine, containing my article on river improvement, which will give a description of the manner of constructing the contracting dykos much batter than is possible in the shoit scope of a letter. — I am &c, ¥ ft. W. Fbebman-, United Stite3 Assistant-Engineer, Portland, Oregon, Mr Hatrick slid ho felt very disappointed at the dita which had been placed before them, as tho works therein suggested «■ ''ild prove too expansive to he entertained. As had boan shown, it would c st tham, fur the four add a half milo3 they required, about .£400,000, or abour £16 Wi per foot. H-id the propnsa's submitted to them boen within their probable m9»ns he should have con-oid-no 1 them satisfactory, and should havo sniiyootefi sonding a pracfcieil man, such as Mr Gilmour, the B >rough Foreman of Worts, to icspixjt tha original york, so that he mvrbt practically readi mark, l"<irn, anil inwardly di^isS the methods sad effects c£ tha worlcj, and report to tho Board as to their applicability to Wamjauui. Had such been the c-iso, and a practiei.l ruin had laid a favour iblo royort of his observations befora them, ha, foi' one, would be quite willing to support tho c instruction. Mr Thatcher said, in ixplanation, that he had pmuvsod the Board uothing definite ; he had merely submitted for their • consider ition the figure? with which he had been supplied. Mr ETitrick sail he had understood the Chairman to say ar the last meeting that the estimated cost of their work, from the information he bad received, would ba about £o odd per foot. Mr Thatcher said the error in the estimate had occurred through not working out the totals. Mr Somraorville said he would like to point out that the whole of the data before them was simply relative to river contraction works, and did not bear on their requiraia»nts. After a little further discussion, the matter was held over ponding the considoration of the report of the committee on ways and means. Mr Notman then rand the report of the committee appointed to confer with the Waitotara County Council on the question of Harbour Board representation, as provided in the measure novr before tho House. Tho report was as follows : — " Tour Committee have the honour to report that they mat Messrs Laird and Robertson (representing the "Waitotara County Council) at the Board's office on Friday, 21sC July. .After a frea discussion it was mutually agreed to recommend that the Bill now before Parliament should provide for the constitution of tne Board on the following lines : — Borough of Wanganui to be represented by four eloctive members and the Mayor ; county of Wanganui, one elective member and tho Chairman ; county of Waitotara, one elective member and the Chairman. Nine members thus being provided for, the 1 Government to be asked to agree to the i striking out of their nominee. In the evont of the Government uot consenting to the striking out of their nomhee then tho Bill to provide for the number of members to bo increased from nine, the present number, to ton, and take in the nominee member. Tour Committee further recommend that clauses should be added to the Bill provided for the coming into opnration of tho Act, and also providinS for tho election of the new mombers. Mr Hatrick took exception te the pro.

po»al to increase the number of mmebers of the Board, as he did not think it was necessary to suggest such a thing to ihe Government. If the Government insisted - ' on retaining their nominee then they (tha Board) could not help it, but he failed to see the necessity of suggesting such an alternative. He proposed, "That the words 'in the event of the Government not consenting to the striking out — .of their nominee then the Bill provide for Hthe number of members to bo increased [^■from nine, the present number, to ten, . and tike in the nominee member,' be struck out." 1^- This was seconded by Mr Stevenson. Mr Campbell proposed as an amendment the adoption of the roport as presented, which was seconded by Mr Higgie. 4. little further discussion ensued, and the amendment, was put and carried. The Board then wont into committee.