WAIROA.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3536, 7 November 1882, Page 4

WAIROA.

November 7,

Mr John Davis, of the Canterbury Linseed Oil and Fibre Company, for many years a resident of Wairoa, and proprietor of the defunct Free Press, was entertained at a dinner at the Clyde Hotel on Saturday night, prior to his departure for the South. About twentyfive gentlemen sat down, and tbe usual toasts and speeches were given. A conference of the Harbor Board, and County Council members was held yesterday afternoon, when Mr Stewart's report, with tbe plan, was submitted, and wae highly approved of by all present. The report gives the normal discharge of the river at 15,000 gallons a minute in dry weather, with an average of 1,300,000 gallons as the maximum, and the discharge in floods 21,000,000 gallons. This discharge he utilises to scour out the entrance. The proposed works consist of a concrete pier wall carried round the face of the bluff, and a sloping concrete wall along tbe top of the eastern spit, narrowing the entrance to 180 feet at low water, 800 feet at high and 1000 feet at flood level. The narrowing of the entrance he estimates will so increase the scour that its effect will be felt out to the " three fathom line," giving ten feet at low water. The estimated cost is £20,000, exclusive of sheet pilings to deepen the fairway, which he thinks may not be necessary. Mr Stewart states that "the works proposed are eimply those which are absolutely essential to secure a safe and reliable entrance ; that they do not involve any projection seiward or curvature inland capable of interfering with the ' travel' of the shingle, or which may cause a weakening of the spits." Sir John Coode's proposal was to spend £12,000 to attain this very object, and all authorities agree that Mr Stewart's plan is just the one for Wairoa. A public meeting is called for Monday to elicit the opinion of the ratepayers as to the desirability of levying a special rate to provide interest on half the cost, £12,500. If the Government give the other half Wairoa will almost certainly rate itself for the balance.