COUNTRY NEWS.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2007, 11 October 1869, Page 2

COUNTRY NEWS.

Mysterious rumors concerning the discovery of a quartz reef in the neighborhood of Tuapeka, have been current for the past few days. Unfortunately, the present Goldfields Act makes so small a provision for securing the rights of original discoverers, that a good deal of delay occurs before a man, having secured his right, can safely make his discovery public. The erection of a Wesleyan Church at Kakanui is in contemplation. Mr Hoodie, the representative of Messrs Wotherspooq and Sons, of Glasgow, has purchased from Mr G. TJ. Fenwick, a sipe fojj a meat-curing establishment on the banks of the Kakanui, and near the mouth of that river. This will be good news for the sheepowners of the district.

We (Oamaru Time*) have been shown by Mr Daniel Brown a design for a floating breakwater, apparently somewhat similar to that described in a paragraph extracted by us from the T'maru Herald , and which found a place in our columns on Tuesday last. Mr Brown forwarded the plan in question to tlx# Provincial Government some two years ago, he having designed it for the roadstead here. No action, however, appears to have been taken in the matter. Mr Brown claims for his ideas the merit of originality, he having been guided at the time by no precedent whatever. As similar works appear tq bp comipg iptq favor, 3 description of the plan referred to may pot be uh: acceptable to our readers : —lt shows (A) a stone abutment 300 feet in length, running out from the point at the Cape, bearing nea'.ly due north, a stone pier 50 feet in diameter (B) being shown at a point about a 1000 feet to the north of the end of the abutment mentioned, but some 200 feet to the westward of the straight line of the abutment ; 500 feet to the southwest of B a second pier (C) is shown, on which it was intended to erect a lighthouse. The space thus enclosed on three sides, or rather “protected”, on two, the third being the shore line, is, at a r.nqh calculation, about 12 acres, and Mr Brown claims that this space would be kept still water by his plan, which is thus described—Between A and B, and B and C, a line of floating pontoons is mooted, 1 each poiitoop being a cylinder of iron 50 feet in leiigth, cqnhegjpd By shackles. Each cylinder, or ponton, is fitted with a contrivance, so that wave rolling in and meeting the floating breakwater, will depress the pontoon and break over it, thiis preventing damage to the breakwater itself, by its yielding to force of the sea, while at the same time effect tually preventing a heavy surf rolling in to the harbor thus formed. Every third cylinder is secured to the ground by double moorings attached to the top and bottom of the cylinder respectively ; three-inch chain cable being used for this purpose. The cost for a breakwater of the dimensions given is estimated at L 35,000, though the design can be adapted so as to meet smaller requirements.