Improvements to the Wanganui River.

Manawatu Herald, 21 May 1898, Page 2

Improvements to the Wanganui River.

The Chairman of the River Trust Board in his annual report laid before Ihe Board on Tuesday afternoon said : — The principal work done this year has been, above Pipiriki. A chancel h&s b&en cleared and snagw ged up as far as the Wbatakaka Bapids, about 22 miles' above Fipiriki, and four miles nearly! below the Tangarakan Junction. The heaviest part of this work has been in the rapids in the .first fix miles above Pipiriki. At Paparoa Bapid, besides clearing out boulders and * snags, an extensive reef of papa has been lowered in the channel. The reef had to be broktn up by blasting, chiefly with dynamite, and the loosened rock loaded into punts and removed, involving necessarily tedious work, interrupted several times by partial rises in the river. This papa reef was 240 feet long, by 40 -^ feet wide. A similar work was done at Autapa Bapid, about 8 miles higher up, on a papa ledge— a reef 90 feet long and 29 feet wide, on tht left bank of the river. This was done to widen the channel at this part. The whole surface of these reefs had to be looienad by blasting, and pioked up, and this had to be done under water, and in a rapid current. At Upper Ngpora Bapid, at Mangaio, Aratira, and Bnahinetoro Bapids, a number of rooks and large boulders under water were broken up by blasting, and removed out of the channels; many snags and aooummulations of imbedded drift timber were also removed in different parts of these six miles. In the portion higher up, between the six miles and the 22 miles above Pipiriki, the work was chiefly removing snags and imbedded timber, but many rooks and boulders were

also blasted ati removed. The accompanying sketch plan of river between Pipiriki and the Tangarakau will show the numerous rapids to be dealt with, viz., 28 in the first 22 miles, and 9 more in the 4 miles left between this and Tangarakau. Although a channel has been cleared for 22 miles above Pipiriki, yet further improvements on several of these rapids still require to be done, 30 as to give more room and straighter channels, and in several places more water in low levels of river. The remaining portion of river, of about foot miles to the junction of the Tangarakau, requires a good deal of work, and has not beea touched* this season; There are many snags to be cleared out here, especially in the two miles next to the Tangarakau junction. It is advisable to continue improving the shallows below Pipiriki, and it is to this part of the rivet between Wanganni and Pipiriki that general cargo trafio is as yet confined. The continuation of the clearing of the channel aboVt Pipiriki to the junction of the Tangarakat, and onward above this point, is moßt important, as inducing settlement, and also as a tourist route. It is obvious that for many years the river will be the only highway available for heavy goods, cargo and produce transit into this interior district lying on both sides of the river. The river navigation is capable of improvement, in a similar manner to that portion already improved, as far at least as a few miles above Whenuatere, or to about 66 miles above Pipiriki, and about 128 miUi above Wanganui.