OPUNAKI HARBOR.

Patea Mail, 14 July 1882, Page 4

OPUNAKI HARBOR.

Opunaki is talking of sending a deputation to Wellington for obtaining some expenditure on the harbor. Mr Livingstone, of Hawera, is asked to accompany Mr Galvin, of Manaia, on this money mission. Well, the arrangement is odd, though the object isn’t odd. For we cannot see how it comes about that Mr Livingstone should be anxious to make Opunaki a port for Hawera, when the two places are 30 miles apart, as compared with 20 miles to Patea. Surely a practical man like Mr Living, stone not want to go on a wildgoose chase to Wellington ; for it ought to be palpable that if Opunaki can get a grant of £50,000 to build two breakwaters, or only one, the harbor at Patea would have at least equal claim to a grant of £50,000. If that sum were got, the harbor at Patea could be made safe and accessible for ships of 16 feet draught, while Opunaki would be safe only in fine weather even after spending £50,000. And after the walls were built and the outward scour was stopped, what about the silting up ? People who want to make a harbor without an outward scour should be sent to school. Their education has been neglected.