The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1899. MR FIELD'S INACCURACIES.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9642, 14 January 1899, Page 2

The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1899. MR FIELD'S INACCURACIES.

Mft &fctt> MVitfg blundered 'egVegiollsly i'ti his stateViieirts aneWUhe ' late Sir John Code's SfcaVus "as & martoe cbgiuee'r, reiterates hls.asser-; t&u that 'the 'deceased ge'ntlem'^i Sfftsl! only 'kabwa'tofa^e lV&Mh .Africa. No>, Mr FuM Is a civil engineer,, aW ftugbi to know more about his' professional , brethren of eminence than 'lie "seems 'to,:jnd«lng for the 1 following extracts fittni "no obituary notice ot Sir John' Ooodo, which 1 eared, , in tlie ; Transactions of tho Institute of Civil EngiaeeVs, 1898:— "On tha adoption hi i 84"7, of Mr Rendelft! l-e^jnenMio^s for the foMftttbn '6i a harbour of «s>#> at Portland, Mr Coode was appointed resident engineer. His connection with this important work did not cease until its completion 111 1872, as on the dentil of Mr fteh'de'li in 1866 lie received fixM tne &<j.. miv&Uy the kwaMtefc \ •; .'.^hVkjxlcostof 'm Wo'rta wiis about £'1,040,000., Shortly tj,fte\' the. completion of the work Mr Coode .received tho honor of knighth'tjpa, 'Shortly after 1858 Mr Coot© Was selected to act as a mem* ber of a Royal Commission on harbours of refuge, , - , , Ho inspeoted more than thirty important harbours of Great Britain and Ireland, and obtained information which was afterwards of great value. In the same year the Government of the Cape of Good Hope appointed him engineer-in-chief for tlie hftrbbwr lo bo constructed at tky. . . In 1864 Ml 1 Coode was consulted by the Waterford Harbour Commissioners with reference to improvements in tho channel of the River Sair below the cltyj tlncl, Under his superintendence, the length of river then known -as tho iTord Channel was deepened from 6ffc to i3ft at low watel\ In the same year Mr Ooodo was consulted by tho authorities of the isle o_f Man, and between that date and 1886 designed and carried out the breakwater at Port Erin, the Victoria and Battery Piers at Douglas, improvements to tho harbours of Port St. Mary and Peel and the large promenade and landing pier at Kftmsay* In 1866 tho improvement Of the harbour at firidlington Quay, in Yorkshire, was entrusted to him. The States of Jersey in 1867 invited desighs for a harbour to be constructed at St. Relief. . . . Mr Coode's design was accepted, and he was appointed engineer." Summarising tho rest of the above report, Sir John Coodo was in 1808 and 1870 entrusted with importaut works at Algoa iky and other places in South Africa. In 1878 hp dosigned works for tho protection of the harbour of Colombo at Ceylon, which largely exceeded expectations in their favourable results. In 1878 Sir John ijoode visited the colonies and reported on several important works in Victoria, and also visited New Zealand. In 1880 he designed important works for the Portugese Government, and up to the time of his death was continuously employed in doing the same for other Governments in all parts of the world, and yet this is the man Mr H. 0. Field has the effrontery to assert was only known to fame in connection with his South African work I Surely Mr Field is not ignorant of the fact that Sir John Coode occupied the high position of President of the Institute of Civil Engineers, an oflice only held by men of tlie highest eminence in the engineering profession ?

Mr Field's evasion of his statement that Mr Beynolds had only paid a flying visit to Wanganui, and reported on the bar on insufficient data ( is of a piece with his stupid attempt to belittle Sir John Coode's professional status, anil shows how far he will go to bolster up an untenable contention. Wo have not space to further criticise his last letter, with which this controversy must end in our columns, as we know from long experience how futile it is to get him to keep strictly to facts, or to argue fairly.