TIMARU BREAKWATER.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1919, 19 April 1880, Page 3

TIMARU BREAKWATER.

In an articlo dealing with the question of harbors and Harbor Boards, tho "South Caiterbury Times" makes the jfullowing remarks upon the Tima-u breakwater : Board has expended a largo amount of money in concrete, and much has yet to bo done before its chief operations will be concluded. Even now its difficulties are only commencing. Tho breakwater is a work on the successful issue of which the future of

Timaru as a commercial centre almost ontirely depends. It is no temporary underInking, but a structure that, if properly and successfully contrived, will live through sunceediriff generations—a monumontto ths enterprise and ingenuity of its founders. As the Timaru Harbor Board are only beginning to get properly into deep water it would be premature to criticise their operations minutely. What they have achieved so far, the public can see and judge for themselves, and we regret to observe that the ricketty, jumbled-up condition of the superstructure is beginning to occasion a good deal of uneasiness respecting the foundations. In some recent observations we said that the foundation of a solid work like a breakwater was by far the most important portion of all. The Timaru breakwater is only in its infancy, yet its foundation has given way in a manner that mußt excite alarm. The explanations of the Board's engineer about the effects of " the Bcour," and other disturbing causes, are anything but assuring. The disjointed, disintegrated state of the concrete blocks, and the yawning crevices in the southern wall, favor the presumption that the experiment of building a mountain of concrete on shifting sand and shingle is not a wise one. Or course tho Board is gaining wisdom by experience, but the expenditure on this bought wit is somewhat serious. It is to be feared they have only so far been experimenting, when a little technical skill summoned to their aid would have saved their reputation.