The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. MONDAY, MARCH 14, 1881.

Kumara Times, Issue 1388, 14 March 1881, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. MONDAY, MARCH 14, 1881.

The mismanagement, utter incapacity, or want of engineering skill displayed in connection with the dam or reservoir that supplies the Government waterrace on this goldfield has again borne fruit, and in a few minutes the work of months has been demolished, the mining community placed under serious disadvantages for an indefinite period,— and a large additional expenditure rendered necessary - simply because “ someone has blundered.” The loss, pecuniary and otherwise, to the district through the breaking away of the Kapitea dam on Saturday last can, under present circumstances, hardly be estimated, as not alone is the delay in the reconstruction of this Work to be taken into consideration, but it must be borne in mind that there are scores of men who have opened up ground on the strength of obtaining a sufficiently large enough supply of water to work their claims to advantage where otherwise with a smaller supply their labor would proye of an unrenumerative character. On the first occasion of this work proving unreliable, a loop-hole of escape was found in the fact that the contractor had not constructed certain sections strictly in accordance with the specifications; hence the disaster. So far, so good, but when the engineer cognisant of these defects had the damage repaired in accordance with his own instructions and a similar unfortunate result occurred a few months after to the identical portion of the work in question, a very general opinion prevailed that there was “ something rotten ” in the Public Works Department. Subsequently the breach was .again filled and the dam restored to its original condition, notwithstanding that many persons while the work was in progress— men whose practical knowledge was far in advance of theoretical principle—in the most outspoken manner condemned the plan adopted by the engineer in the restoration of the damaged section. Rumors innumerable were current that the first heavy flood would prove disastrous to the Kapitea dam, and only too truly were these surmises realized on Saturday afternoon last, when, in a moment, the dam unable to sustain the heavy pressure it was supposed to withstand gave way, the heavy volume of water that escaped carrying destruction with it even to the demolition of the Kapitea bridge on the main road between Kumara and Hokitika. Matters have now come to a stage in which no mincing can for one moment be tolerated. The life-blood of this district lies in an adequate water supply * and only of late public meetings have been held at which resolutions urging on the Government this very fact have been unanimously passed; and yet, forsooth, the then insufficient supply of water is now in an instant curtailed through, to speak in plain terms, the incompetency of those entrusted with the carrying out of public works in this district. If it is an impractibility to construct a dam on the spot in question of sufficient strength to withstand every little flood, then we say the Government are deserving of censure in allowing their officers to attempt a work which can only result in a wasteful and useless expenditure of the public money. On the other hand, if through the tinkering, patch-rae-up style in which this work has been (under instruction from the Public Works department) carried out the result so greatly to be deplored happened

then the matter demands the strictest investigation at the hands of the Government. Much as we regret the necessity that has arisen for unfavorable comment on the action of the Public Works department in regard to the Kapitea dam, at the same time the question at issue if of such vital importance to this district that were the permancy of this work only to be insured by the removal of the District Engineer and one half his subordinates to fields and pastures new, then we say by all manner of means let them be removed. At whose door individually the fault can be laid we are not in a position to state authoritatively, but that the construction of the now demolished work showed a lamentable ignorance of engineering and a scandalous waste of public money, but few can deny. Forewarned as the Public Works department were both by previous experience and competent authorities that they could expect no stability in the work when finished, they have little cause of complaint in the hour of disaster if public sympathy is not with them.