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Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 395, 29 January 1879, Page 2

Nominations for the three elective members for the Patea Harbor Board, will take place on the 3rd February, in the chief townships within the respective ridings of the County. Wo should hope that no haphazard selection of candidates will be made. The work now in hand by the Harbor Board is of great importance to the whole County, and the election of men indifferent to, or opposed to harbor works, would be little less than a calamity. The work has progressed so far, that it would be the height of folly to stop or turn back. It may even now bo said to have got beyond the experimental stage. A month ago the entrance to the river was bad, the channel being so ciooked as for it to have been questionable if anything hut very light draught sailing vessels could get in or out in safety. Doubts were beginning to be felt as to whether the s.s. Clyde would be able to continue trading, whilst any hope of the new steamer being able to enter the river had completely vanished. A bad bar in summer has not been uncommon. Considerable progress having been made with the breakwater, :t was generally considered that the summer diihcnlty to navigation should thereby have been removed. Whilst it is a matter very much lo be regretted, it may not be out of place to mention that while Pateans were duleiu! as to the bad state of the river entrance, our near neighbours at Wanganui had very considerable cause for anxiety Wanganui men even somewhat sorrowfully admitting that the Wanganui bar was bad. As with ourselves, the anxiety was short lived. We lately reported the scouring out of a new channel across the sand spit, almost in a straight line to sea, nearly opposite the point of the breakwater. The Harbor Engineer in Ins last report, referred hopefully to the change. It was what had been expected, and what was deemed certain sooner or later to come to pass. Whenever at any time there have been two channels at the entrance of Patea River, the navigation has invariably been precarious. There arc two channels at the present lime, the one having been scoured out by the action of the water projected from the breakwater seawards across the spit. Latest reports mention that this new channel continues to improve, and that thcieloro the navigation of the river is everyday getting better. This is a new experience, and which must he credited to the breakwater works. There arc two channels, and that newly scoured out is still improving. Should this scouring out continue, the result must hj that the old channel will Jill up, and thus the whole volume of in and out-llowing tides be kept in the straight run-out to sea. As the breakwater progresses, it will be impossible tor tiie strength of the tides to revert to the old channel. The water will he, kept within the confines of the groin and the western head, and the back of the difficulties to navigation at the entrance of the Patea River, will have been thoroughly broken. A long continuance of unfavorable weather may still for a time narrow the now channel, and make navigation loss easy than now, but of the ultimate result there can be no question, and it is quite safe to say that the river improvements have passed the experimental stage. What is wanted m the new Harbor Board is mou who have faith in the work and its results, and who will use every endeavor to provide means to carry the work on to completion. We should like to sec men returned who will show equal faith to what has been shown by the present Chairman (Mr G. F. Sherwood), and who will utterly sot their faces against sue!) as poisistently advocate private as against public interests. We regret that so much of the time of the late Board should have been taken up with the Boiling Down Company’s wants —and trust that such men will be put in the new Board as will prevent the attention of mom hers being diverted from the main work so much as lias been the case during tin; last year.