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The Daily News. FRIDAY, JUNE 11. THAT MYTHICAL REEF.

, The most serious objection raised by our evening contemporary to tile Harbor ' Board's modern wharf scheme is one that, could it be substantiated, would , necessarily involve a modification of the plans. That our friend is absolutely wrong in his surmise, however, we are quite convinced. The Herald alleges that " under the new plan it will be necessary to excavate to a depth of thirty loot at the shore end . . . and through I what! Sand? Xo, the root of the bmu;waier is built on a reef, and the rocks i along the heacii indicate that the reel j extends .some distance inside, so mai ': apparently the new drudge, will have to J undertake the most dill'ioult work possible, DKEIXiJNU THKOUUH SOUD S KOCK." On a later occasion the Herald | stated: "If Jlr. Marchant's new scheme J is carried out, he will have to dredge | about thirty feel through what i« be- | lieved to be almost solid rock, except \ for a few feet of sand on the top." 1 Were the facts as alleged by our coni, temporary, not only would tile plans, so L far as the inshore berths are concerned, jj be utterly useless, but the engineer ! would be condemned as quite uilHoimy and incapable. .For surely no engineer would dream of recommending dredging through solid rock! And as, if we are to believe our contemporary, that is what he has done, it must be clear that | he recommended the inshore scheme 1 without investigating the nature of the 9 country to be dredged. The Herald's | charge, accordingly, amounts to a grave 3 eharge against the competency of the 1 Board's engineer, Jlr. Jlarcliant. But | Jlr. Jlarchant's reputation is in no lUm--1 ger. As we stated on Tuesday, there is no reef, no solid rock, to be dredged in the harbor. Anyone possessing the crudest knowledge of geology could have assured our contemporary on that point, irrespective of the delinite knowledge regarding the strata otherwise obtainI able. There are rocks in the vicinity ut I the base of the breakwater certainly, as there are all over the harbor. They are merely superficial, however, embedded in the sand. Their removal by the dredge, moreover, will call for a much lesser expenditure of time than will be necessary in the case of rocks in the outer harbor, where the dilliciilties will be greater owing to the depth. Superficial or surface rocks, chat is boulders embedded in the soft..,- iuriiiauuii, oiler ', no great obstacle to dredging, as unyI one acquainted with the work of a » bucket dredge such as is being procured . by tile Harbor Board, will know. Were \ there such a reef of solid rock as is > stated to exist, it would be natural to \ assume that it should be in evidence at \ the root of the breakwater, the latter, > according to the Herald, being built on \ it. Jn that ease, also, tile reef would \ probably consist of a northerly eontimi- > ation of the base of I'aritutu.' The only > reasonable way to prove that such a [ I'cef existed, thcrei'oiV, would he to; > test the strata by boring or otherwise. , Fortunately that has been done, un me ; direct line from I'aritutu to the alleged i reef, and within a few feet of the root \ of the breakwater, which is alleged to ; he built on the reef. It is, no doubt, , well known tiiat a petroleum well was ; sunk at that spot nearly twenty years ; ago. ff,. have before us the daily log of the well, but for our purposes if is only necessary to refer to that portion covering Ihe depth rcpurcd b, the Harbor Board, (in January 12, 1S!)1, wiieu drilling commenced, two feet was sunk through sandstone. Xo sinking was clone during Uie next tw„ days owi'.ig to an accident. On the loth, 111 feet was sunk, through sandstone. On the loth 25 feet of conglomerate was cut through. I'liis is the only mention of conglomerate in the well, and the fact tii.it tiro Jr.ll went through A, feet of it in one day shows that it would oiler the slHitest resistance to a dredge. On the nth, sandstone was traversed fo r f, feet- on the lilth, 27 feet of ironsand and sandrock; on the -20111, 2 feet of saud-rock-, and on the next two days 2.1 feet of sand-rock. In eight Jays the bore was drilled to a depth of III! feel. Allow-in-for elevation «f the ~<„,, . llmvp , ow . | water mark, the bore penetrated to a : depth of nearly fin f,. ( . t l)( ,|, nv i 0„,„. II level without encountering any (race of/ | a reef. Is any furtlior proof wanted? I ■ I'lenly, at any rate, is available. I'rac-j ticul experiment long ag o showed the Hoard that even without the aid of a I powerful bucket dredge, but w itli a much lighter machine, grab and sand-pump, it I was quite possible to dredge to a minimum depth of ]., feet at the shore end of the wharf. At that depth the "' bottom'" is too hard to be economically worked on the grab principle, but would be easily penetrated by a bucket dredge. This " false bottom," from a minimum depth of ir, feet at the shore, gradually dips until before half the length of the ; wharf is traversed it is at a depth of 2") feet, gradually increasing towards the ' end of the wharf to 3(1 feet and over. ■ And in the face of thes,, figures, which ' are on record as the result of tests made l specifically for the purpose some years ago, the Herald endeavors to imperil the Boards policy by unearthing a bogus reef of solid rock. 'We do not think it is necessary to pursue this aspect ot the question further, except to say that equally emphatic contradictions of the I Herald's theory are available from other reliable and unimpeachable sources. The' fullest publicity should be given to oh-1 jections lo the new plans, as only there-i by may their superiority pver the super-1 seded scheme be thoroughly appreciated. | For that reason we welcome our contemporary's attitude, as invtrti cannot be said, however, regarding the more recent endeavors of some opponents of the scheme to thwart its realisation, and at the proper tim turn our attention to their doings.

OS THE FOU\IT[I PAGE. Hockov. Football. Shooting. Valuation. Commercial. The Civil Servants. The .Mouth's Kxports.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19090611.2.7

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 114, 11 June 1909, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,066

The Daily News. FRIDAY, JUNE 11. THAT MYTHICAL REEF. Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 114, 11 June 1909, Page 2

The Daily News. FRIDAY, JUNE 11. THAT MYTHICAL REEF. Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 114, 11 June 1909, Page 2

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