The Akaroa Mail, TUESDAY, JULY 16.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 208, 16 July 1878, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail, TUESDAY, JULY 16.

From the final report of Mr Hardy Johnston, the Engiaeer of the Lakes Drainage and Akaroa Railway Trust, we make the following extracts :—

"The greatest length of Lake Ellesraere is seventeen miles, from Tamutu to Birdling's, and the greatest breadth is ten miles; its circumference at flood line is, roughly,; sixty miles,; The area within' the flood lino is computed as follows:—Submerged during ordinary flood, 73,195 acres; pointa of land in lake not, submerged, 592 acres; sandhills, 135 acres—Total area of lake, 73,922 acres. o o o .

By permanently opening the mouth at TamutH, the height of the lake waters will be reduced throughout its upper compartments to at least that of half tide or sea level, or to six or seven feet below ordinary flood line, i.e., two feet at least below high water of sea level. The approximate area

of land thus reclaimed would amount to between 30,000 and 35,000 acres, but how mucti of tlils will be suitable for pasturage and how much for agricultural purposes cannot be said until the land is reclaimed, i There can be, however, no question of the reclamation becoming in a.short time a highly remunerative undertaking.'-. The raising of the bed of the lake will be accelerated by the concentration upon a smaller space of the detritus after- the mouth at Tamutu shall have manently , opened. The object to be arrived at is the preventing of periodical accumulations of river floods, and this can -4)6* effectually done, ifrr a comparatively short' time and 'at a reasonable (cost It Tamutu." " ' • -

.Mr Johnston then furnishes elaborate details of the works liecessary to Carry out the scheme, the total cost of, which,, he estimates at £88,111, said estimate being, he says, " most liberal:"— akab6a railway. "This line commences at a point on.the Southbridge Branch Railway, .distant 7 miles 35 chains and 75 links from Racecourse junction, near the railway at Lincoln, and after passing over Very level and firm ground, as far as Birdling's, enters the first cutting of any consequence in the shingle terrace of Lake Ellesmere, a few chains to seaward of Beach Arms; Hotel. From this point it runs close by the coach road to Little River, and thence ascends by moderate curves at a rnling gradient of 1 in, 47 to the tunnel at 28 miles 10 chains from Lincoln. The tunnel is 2 miles 2 chains in length, the first mile on a rising gradient of 1 in 1056, and the remainder on a descending grade of 1 in 60, the line terminating at a point 31 miles 25 chains from junction. The estimated cost of section No. 1 is £32,465, or an average of £1838 per mile for the first 17 miles ; the cost of section No. 2, from 17 to 24 miles, is estimated at £21,456, or an average of £3,241 per mile , section No. 3, from 24 miles to 28 miles, is estimated to cost £11,088 or an average of £2858 per mile ; section No. 4,~ the tunnel, is estimated to cost £70,637. Section No. 5, the last mile and 13 chains is estimated to cost £4073 or £3508 per mile. The total cost of the railway is estimated at £139,722, or an average per mile of £4462 10s. The route selected presents a far better working line, at considerably less cost than would a line via the Okute Valley, inasmuch as the elevation at which the line would have to leave the tunnel above high water at French Farm would not admit of a working grade in descending from the tunnel to the shore in so short a distance."

This report and the accompanying plans were approved by the Trust, and for this approval they are taken severely to task by the Press, in its leading article of Friday last. The general action of the Trust during its tenure of office is also made the subject of unfavorable comment. Our contemporary says :— "For what value can the House possibly attach to an approval given without any consideration of the plans or estimates submitted ? It will perhaps be contended that the matter was urgent on account of the near approach of the session. This is not to be denied, though it is the'fault of the members of the Trust that the time |ior deliberation was so short. The Act creating the Trust was passed more than eighteen months ago. but it was not till the beginning of the present year that the work for which it was created was taken earnestly in hand. A whole twelvemonth was lost in proceedings which did not advance matters one iota. This also is not likely to add to any weight which the Legislature may attach to the approval of the report by the Trust. But overlooking the delay or mismanagement, and admitting the urgency of the case, that is the necessity of some scheme being laid before Parliament, we still think the members might have found other means of avoiding the difficulty besides that of giving an approval which, whatever may be the merits of the scheme, cannot be called intelligent, and cannot be regarded by the House as a serious recommendation. Even if they had taken a few days to understand and deliberate on Mr Johnston's project, their judgment would have been worth something more, supposing they had then given it their support. But we cannot see that they were required by the Act to give a definite approval at all. If they had been contented with carrying out the preliminary duty imposed upon them by law, namely, the preparation, of course through a competent engineer, of a scheme by which the objects aimed at might be attained, and had forwarded ihe same to Wellington for examination, without committing themselves to any recommendation, they would have done all that the Act required."

We venture to submit that these strictures are decidedly unjust. It is not correct to say that " it is the fault of the members of the Trust that the time for deliberation was so short." Every one who is acquainted with the proceedings of that body knows that the fault lay elsewhere. They made an appointment which they had every reason to believe would be an excellent one, and it is sufficient to say that it turned out most unfortunately. In consequence, a good deal of money, and, what was even of far greater importance, much valuable time was irretrievably lost. Then, as to the " approval " which our contemporary says "cannot be called intelligent," and which it is contended was altogether unnecessary, we are at a loss to see how the Trust could have forwarded a report without expressing some opinion on it. If they had done so, sach a proceeding would rightly have been interpreted as the strongest possible condemnation of the whole scheme. It would have been tantamount to saying : —Here is a report by our Engineer ; we have been watching the progress of his work for months, but we do not know whether it has been properly clone, or not ; we have. no idea of the route the railway ought to take ; we cannot say whether it is advisable to drain the lake. In fact, we have been at work for eighteen months over this scheme, and now we .know nothing about it." Such would have been a legitimate inference . from the Trust, handing in these plans without remark, as recommended by the writer in the JPress, and such, a proceeding would

have stamped that body with self-con-fessed imbecility. The remark as to the report being approved " after a few minutes conversational- discussion," and such approval being therefore valueless, though at first sight- plausible, has little real weight, when we remember that the Trust >have had regular interim monthly reports' laid before them', during 'which the scheme had been.growing" before their eyes/that the Engineer's plans have always been open to the inspection &f members, and have, to our knowledge, been regularly and |nib"e|Sd fhe&f' fjT^if ; final consideration' wasf* merely/the.'outcome of numerous previous discussions 'at'"which the -plans, &c., hachbeen< submitted to .them. Of course the Trust, as a body of laymen', , are hdl called upon to guarantee the correctness of Mr Johnston' s figures. This would be absurd!, but it is at least as absurd for a lay writer, without any of the particulars before him on which the calculations arVbased, to pooh pooh the -whole .scheme,, and coolly* assert; that 1 the work wjjll < cost about double the sum set down for itv From internal evidence, we,cannot 'help thinking that the article has emanated from or been inspired >~3y someone either' personally hostile to the members of the Trust, or entirely disapproving of the scheme proposed. ""