PRESERVING NIAGARA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 110, 12 May 1931, Page 8

PRESERVING NIAGARA

EXPENDITURE OF £350,000 The crumbling of a portion of the brink of th 3 Niagara Falls on the United States side is a reminder that in the course of time—probably thousands of years —this world wonder will disappear altogether. Canada is determined that her section of the falls shall survive as long as industry and science can contribute to their preservation. She has carefully controlled the withdrawal of water for power purposes, and has taken steps to ensure that the erosion of the escarpment of the falls, which has been receding at a rate of more than three feet a year, shall be modified.

Carrying into effect the recommendations of an expert committee, the Canadian Government is spending over £350,000, not only in the further employment of Niagara for power, but in establishing an unbroken crestline. Exposed shoals above the Horseshoe arc being removed and submerged weirs are being laid diagonally at irregular intervals across the current. By means of excavations, too, water is being deflected from the swifter channels, and the force of the falls is being evenly distributed over the whole of the brink. The feat represents a triumph of modern engineering, for the preservation is being achieved without in any way marring the scenic beauty of what a writer 250 years ago described as “a vast and prodigious cadence of water which falls down after a surprising and astonishing manner insomuch that the universe does not afford its parallel.”