LANDING THE CABLE AT MURIWIA

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 27 November 1912, Page 3

LANDING THE CABLE AT MURIWIA

The last length of the new Sydney to Auckland cable was laid on Sunday, when the end of the last coil tor the Tasman Sea connection was paid over the stern of the cable steamer Silvertown, on the West Coast, and landed at Muriwai.

Delightful weather favoured the comparatively few spectators who made the journey to this picturesque seaside resoit to witness the operation of landing the heavy cable. The Silvertown is an np-to date cable steamer in eveiy respect, being fitted with the best of modern gear for handling and paying out the heavy gauge wire used for a coastal landing whr-re the cable has to resist the action of the waves, but ashore, in remarkable contrast, a team of thirty bullocks, were drawn up to pull the line ashore. Attached at short length* on the cable were a number cf pnematic rubber balls, which kept the line from sinking while if, was being towed ashoie. The operation was completed successfully on Sunday afternoon, and the Silvertown left for Auckland.