CORRESPONDENCE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 11813, 13 March 1906, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

Mr H C. Field and the River. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — Permit me to draw the attention of your readers to a letter by Mr 11. C. Feild which appeared in this (Monday's) issue of the Chronicle. To all those who had made, or purpose making, Wanganui their permanent abode the improvement of our river is a matter of the greatest moment; for our future welfare as a distributing centre depends upon tills work, and we should see to it that the traffic is not diverted elsewhere ere the avenue to the same is -operated upon. For a plain, straightforward statement Mr Feild's letter stands out before all that lias preceded it on this matter, and his arguments are the only reasonable ones, I believe, that have recently appeared. His suggestion to cut through the South Spit, near the Landguard Bluff, ie surely the only means by which the river can be at once deepened and tho bar pushed farther out, and if your readers will only take the rational view of things they will see that such must be the case. We take the stand tl-at the bar is simply that piece of the sea beach across the mouth of the river, which has been pushed out to make way for the river. Its distance outwards depends on the force of the river. If a river 's sijong enough to push it into deep water so riuch the better, but as the eea is always tcjding to drive it back again into line with the regt of the beach, the push of the river must be constant to be effective. To ensure this result let us follow Mr Feild's plan and shorten tho course, and thus accelerate the volume of water in the tide-way. It is the writer's firm conviction that Wanganui will never have a harbour till this is done. Our great drawback in Wanganui is that we have too many old ladies, of both sexes, on our various boards of management. — I am, etc., NAUTICUS.