TIDAL RIVERS AND BARS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3910, 23 February 1929, Page 2

TIDAL RIVERS AND BARS.

SOME INTERESTING FACTS

Some interesting facts about rivers and bars were given at last .night’s Borough Council meeting by Cr. John Ross who, during twentythree years of seafaring life,' has .visited every harbour and river port in New Zealand. Cr. Ross can lay claim to knowing something about the vagaries of the Manawatu River and bar as for ten years he was engineer on a boat which made eight trips a month to Foxton. His lengthy experience of working the Manaiwatu river had taujght him jthat when a flood'‘came down accompanied by an easterly wind and .with a calm sea, it was “goodbye bar,” for some days until the natural ebb and flow of the tide after the flood had receded, once more cut a channel through the silt. A heavy flood with a westerly wind had no affect on the bar whatever as as soon as the silt was carried about a quarter of a mile out to sea and commenced to deposit to form a delta the westerly wind assisted the current to carry the depositfurther to the north or south according to the ebb or How. Giving the river a quicker getaway should assist the bar hut Cr. Ross referred to the condition of the rivers of the West Coast. Both Westport and Greymouth were particularly swift flowing rivers but they possessed very tricky bars. An evidence of their swiftness could be guaged from the fact that when a vessel he was on was tied up to the wharf at Westport on one occasion the run out was so strong that the action of the water on the screw of the vessel caused the engines to; turn over at the rate of 15 revolutions to the minute, while the crew could hear the stones hashing up against the bottom of the vessel. In such cases it was always necessary to specially anchor the bow of the vessel with a land anchor and to slacken off the stern lines so that with the nose of the vessel lied well in to the wharf the stern "was kept forced in by the pressure of the water. If the prow of the boat once got out from the wharf in such a run, it would have been impossible to do anything for it and it would have been swept away in a second.