TO THE EDITOR.

Patea Mail, 24 December 1880, Page 3

TO THE EDITOR.

[Correspondents are invited to discuss matters of public interest with fairness and brevity ; this journal being an impartial medium of discussion and advocacy for all affairs relating to the County of Patea..] {[ARBOR WASTE. Slit, —Since harbors now occupy public attention,and especially the one to be constructed at New Plymouth for the supposed benefit of this district, I venture to enclose the following extract from a work written by a gentleman holding a high position in the Indian Civil Service. Ho says ; “ Much lime is wasted, much money, much human energy and life is wasted, in foolishly contending with nature. By skill and resolution, almost anything may be accomplished, but there would be less waste if man and nature sought to adapt themselves to one another; if they entered intoallianceand not into contention. 3lan’s life is short, but the forces of nature continue as of old. It would, therefore, always be wise in man to endeavour to adapt his desires and efforts to the locality he is in, or else move to one that suits him. An engineer with unlimited funds can accomplish great things ; but the success may be a loss. “ Progress is the watchword of our race, but we shall accomplish infinitely more if we start ever ready with the principle that if the mountain will not come to ilaliouiet, Mahomet will go to the mountain. Seize on natural opportunities and improve and turn them to our advantage, but waste nothing on tin-called for contests. It is on this principle that we should enter on tiie consideration of the public works required for each different district . . . Now Malabar is a const district. Its want is ports. There are numerous small streams, the mouths of which form natural ports and want but little guidance and assistance to make them most valuable. At Pommy what once was a port has now been for years almost obliterated. The difficulty and the remedy hero and at every other port in the Malabar district arc the same. The prevailing littoral sea current is from the north ; this prevents the river from flowing out direct at right angles to the coast and pushes it southwards ; this action continued from year toyear has driven the mouth of the river south. Its former mouth is blocked up with sand, and it enters the sea by a circuituos course, with lessened momentum, and then is unable to scour out the entrance. A stone embankment on the south side, directing its course straight out to sea by its old bed, would again enable it to scour away the bar and become a port. No wall is needed on the northern side, the sea current takes the place of one. “ There is an interesting instance in the Baltic of a spot where the littoral cunent has been thus utilised. It also increases and acts with the scour just outside the river mouth, and carries away seaward all the silt that wotdd otherwise lie here, in a more complete and thorough way than could bo done at enormous c ost by a fleet of steam dredges. Merchants think ports should come to them. After many millions arc wasted, they learn slowly that the}’must go to ports. What is natural will bo remunerative ; wliat is not will be costly.” The foregoing - remarks need only a change of names to apply exactly to the harbor question as between Patea and New Plymouth ; as between merchants wanting a port brought to them, instead of their going, like practical men, to the place where a natural port exists and can be improved with certainty and at little cost.—l am, &c. Observer.