The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, January 28, 1909. WANGANUI HARBOUR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 449, 28 January 1909, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, January 28, 1909. WANGANUI HARBOUR.

Considerable interest is being evinced in the Wanganui Harbour Board election, which will take place on the Bth prox. Included among the new party which is seeking office on the Board, are four or five men with strong claims to engineering ability, and four who have shone as chairmen of local bodies. The contest will involve the most important question the electors of Wanganui have ever had placed before them. Some of our readers probably know what the mouth of the Wanganui river is like, with its narrow tongue of sand, about miles long, commonly known as the “South Spit,” on the East side. For the past 40 years or more some of the old settlers, including Mr Field senr. (father of the member for Otaki), have unsuccessfully urged that the river should be taken out through this spit and practically shortening the channel by 1% miles. For some inscrutable reason the question has never been fairly or seriously dealt with by the Boards of the past, and of late years any reference to the question has at once aroused the alarm aud antagonism of the Freezing Company, the Castlecliff Railway Company and owners of property near the present mouth, who erroneously thought that auy such alteration meant cutting them off from water communication. When first Mr F. R. Feild (who is a member of the new party), spoke upon harbour matters he represented that this question was the first one to be faced. At the election of two years ago he tried hard to get his party to make this the main plank of their platform, but they funked it, with the result that the public, quite correctly, got the impression that there was something they were afraid to say. And as we know, they were defeated. On this occasion the party make no bones about it. They argue that this question more than any other affects the future welfare of Wanganui and district; that it ought to have been fairly and squarely faced forty years ago; that if the muddling of the past continues for another forty years, aud millions of money be so used, the South Spit question will still have to be faced in the end. They insist that the necessary data be at once provided, and submitted to a man of undoubted qualifications e.g., the leading authority in Europe or America,—in order that he may give a bare opinion as to whether, upon the evidence, he would recommend the change. The new party is certain as to what the verdict would be. It would then be for them to procure further data, and submit it, together with detailed plans for the carrying out of a comprehensive scheme of works in the same way. Some of the work carried out by the present Board, upon the advice ot their Engineer, has now been completed and its effects shown. The result is just what was predicted. If this work had never been done the Charles Edward would not be now in her deplorable position. The party argue that if the Board be allowed to prosecute its present work to the bitter end, then all the Board’s funds and credit will be exhausted ; several years of precious time will be lost, and, worst of all, extremely serious obstacles will have been put in the way of the right thing that must inevitably be done sooner or later. The advantage of the change the new party advocate is well known to all engineers who know the A.B.C. of their business. Such works have been carried out in all parts of the world. Recently such alterations have been made with rivers in both the Old and the New World, to suit the larger ships of the present day. And in every case the benefit has been pronounced. Yet, after all, nature has provided the most convincing argument of all at our very doors. Twenty miles up this same coast is a small stream, the Waitotara, subject to the same tides, floods, prevailing winds, currents etc. And it has a spit the small size aud shape as that at Wanganui. Two years ago a gale of wind scoured out a low place in the sand and the river broke through. Before this occurred the river water at low tide spread out over the sand bar, with a depth of about four inches, so that Maoris, in taking canoes to sea had to,drag them over. Since the occurrence the little Waitotara has had more water on its bar than Wanganui, after spending hundreds of thousands of pounds. It- would be in the very best interests of our rival port to have a chan'geof administration.