PATEA COUNTY MAIL PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1880. WANGANUI AMBITION.

Patea Mail, 21 September 1880, Page 2

PATEA COUNTY MAIL PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1880. WANGANUI AMBITION.

Mr Ballaxct, made a speech at the opening of the Waitotara section of railway, drawing a flattering comparison between the present capabilities of the Wanganni river and those of the Clyde prior to the efforts of Glasgow to make a port for sea-going ships. He was entitled to do this, as chairman of the Wanganni Harbor Board, and he did it well, too well. Having spoken officially, he must expect to be criticised on the principle that a chairman ought to make sure of his facts in putting forth any statement on behalf of the Harbor Board. Is it a fact that any competent authority has made such a comparison before ? Is it a fact that any competent authority will endorse that comparison now ? If not, what authority can Mr Ballance claim to have in making his assertion as to the improvability of Wanganui river being greater than that of the Clyde ? Fancy pictures are not facts, Now we in the Patea district may be

supposed to have a close interest in the question Mr Ballance has raised. The nearer we arc to a port for homeward ships, the bettor for onr district. If Wanganui can be made such a port, it shall have our good will and something more. But do not raise our hopes too high—do not delude us with a phantasmagoria of vapoury unrealities. Enthusiasm has done many great and good things in the world, but enthusiasm has led to infinitely more mischief in the shape of unrealised ambitions —things begun and never finished—energy wasted on impossible projects—money sunk unprofitably on schemes never examined with trained sagacity. That monument of selfish folly at Taranaki should not bo imitated at Wanganui. Those northern saintly brethren want a harbor made on the sea-shore because the spending of Government money promotes trade. The best of the saints will admit, in a candid mood, that the practicability of a harbor there is quite a secondary question with them. Wanganui is supposed to be indued with public spirit. It is daily invigorated with new blood, so that the Taranaki evils of excessive in-breeding arc not rampant at Wanganui. Then we may appeal to and roly on the Harbor Board to use their opportunities like hardheaded men of business. We may rely on them not to sink money rashly, nor in a direction that cannot be remunerative. We may expect them to ascertain what evidence there is for supposing that the Wanganui river is capable of admitting Home-going ships. Can it be said that (Sir John Goode has advised this? And if so, has he re-affirmed that opinion since the condition of the river during the past winter has been reported to him? If Mr Ballance knows the Clyde, and has stood on Glasgow bridge to survey that stream, he must know the volume of water is not so large as at Wanganui, that the Clyde it hardly half the breadth, that it is the narrow end of a broad arm of the sen many hours sail from the mouth, and that no bar exists to throw back the river silt. These conditions arc so different from those at Wanganui that it needs a lively imagination to conceive why any comparison should be made. The whole difficulty at Wanganui is caused by the bar. The silt brought down cannot get clear away seaward, but is thrown up in banks and flats inside the breakers. The Clyde had no such impediment. It was a broad ditch opposite Glasgow, and when deepened with dredging it admitted the tide water like a long wet dock. Drcdgingmust be useless at Wanganui, so long as the bar backs up the silt. The problem is narrowed to a question of clearing away the bar, to allow the riversilt free egress without any back action at the month. Will training walls do that ? Along each wall there will be an outward scour, cutting probably too deep for the wall’s stability ; while between the walls there can be no scour, if the river exceeds a certain breadth proportioned to its volume. Experiment has shown that this is the effect at Wanganui. The stream, though noble in its breadth, is yet too broad to admit of a single channel being scoured between the training walls. That being so, a comparison with the Clyde at Glasgow is a pleasing illusion. It is a pity the Harbor Board at Wanganui is not facing this harbor problem in a more practical spirit.