The Evening Star TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1874
It must be satisfactory to all who take an interest in the welfare of Dunedin to find that the sub-committee of the Harbor Improvement Committee have not neglected the duty they were appointed to fulfil. We have not seen the reports they have received, and are not, therefore, in a position to offer any remarks concerning them ; nor do we think it needful in order to appreciate the service rendered to the committee by Messrs J. T. Thomson, Blair, Baur, and M‘Gregor, Necessarily they will be merely suggestive plans; but through the local knowledge possessed by those gentlemen they will indicate what may be done—subject, of course, to such modifications as thorough survey points to the necessity for. We do not know what can be gained by submitting Mr Balfour’s plan and report to the Engineer of the Clyde Trust. The conditions of the two waters, the Clyde and the Dunedin Harbor, are so different that very minute topographical details would have to accompany the plan to enable him to offer a reliable opinion. The Clyde is not a mere tidal harbor. Prior to the improvements it was the largest river but two in Scotland. Its sources are the Lowthers, the Lead Hills, Queensbury Hill, and the range connecting that hill with Hart Eell. These form nearly a semicircle with elevations varying from 3,150 feet to 2,250 feet. Down the sides of these mountain ranges numerous streams trickle, which unite to form the Clyde. Prom its junction with the Daer to Roberton, it runs swiftly; and further down are falls and rapids, so that there is a constant scour, which, for keeping open a channel, affords facilities such as can never be available in Dunedin harbor. We do not therefore see any advantage to be derived from the experience of a man whose skill has been directed to utilizing circumstances differing so much in details from those on which he is asked to pronounce judgment. It reminds one of the constantly repeated error into which we have fallen in Dunedin of inviting foreign talent to direct our public works, merely because we are in doubt as to the value of that which we have located with us. We do not learn by experience in that respect. The Waterworks Company would have saved thousands had they had faith in the ability of engineers
resident in Otago. The Dunedin Corporation threw hundreds away in the purchase of an opinion lespecting the construction of gasworks, which proved not one jot better than, even if so reliable as what could have been given by one of our local engineers. We see no reason why professional men in Great Britain should be so very superior to their brethren in the Colonies, nor why men in Otago should be inferior to men in Victoria. Mathematics, measurements, mechanical forces and quantities do not vary with climate; but currents do vary with circumstances ; and observation, close, and continued, alone can guide an engineer in determining what is necessary in a tidal harbor. If it were a mere question of calculation, given the data, and the Clyde Engineer’s junior could do the work ; but neither he nor his superior can tell what is necessary to secure a scour to keep open a channel in Dunedin harbor. In view of the efficient manner and small cost at which the public works now in progress are conducted, in our opinion, to place confidence in unknown engineers to the neglect of those whom we know, is not the likeliest way of getting our work well and cheaply done. Private companies have tried it and paid dearly for it ; Corporations have tried it and paid dearly for it ; the General Government has tried it and paid dearly for it. The mistrust arises from inability on the part of our business men to judge for themselves of what is likely to succeed. The oddest part of the matter is, that though unable to understand the details of the work itself, they do not hesitate to pronounce upon the much more • difficult question of the competency of an engineer to carry it out. They doubt what may be known, and put childlike faith in what is guessed at. We think, therefore, the expense of consulting engineers in Victoria or Great Britain may be fairly and advantageously saved. But in view of the vast interests involved we should not like the work to be rushed into without the fullest necessary investigation, and we do not think this can be effected without a Harbor Trust, It cannot be expected that the few gentlemen who have given so much time and attention to the subject, should continue to prosecute the work with no definite prospect before them of its being carried out. They have done much to clear the way, but that only makes plain the real difficulties of the position. They have not only to investigate, but to incur expenses which may or may not be paid by subscriptions, and when that is done they have no authority to go further. All they have done will have to be gone over again, and now that they have begun the work, the sooner it is placed either in their hands as trustees, or vested in some endowed corporate body, the greater will be the gain in time and in saving of expense.
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Evening Star, Issue 3423, 10 February 1874, Page 2
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901The Evening Star TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1874 Evening Star, Issue 3423, 10 February 1874, Page 2
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