HARBOR MATTERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 116, 14 June 1909, Page 3

HARBOR MATTERS.

To the Editor. Sir. 'Mr. Marciliant. the Harbor Board* having seen lit to write you re harbor matters. I presume lie thus places himself in the position of a target to be questioned or shot at by anyone who feels so disposed, and with your permission 1 will put a few questions, and try in ><> doiu<r to eonfiuo myself to w.hat are supposed to be facts ami not •"unreliable hearsay." Xo. I—Did Mr. AJarchant sonu* seven or eig-ht years ago prepare certain pia:is. which- plans or similar ones were subsequently endorsed by .Mr. Napier Bell and approved by the Board? Xo. 2 Did not the Board depart from said plaits, w'hu-h provided for building the breakwater on a "«olid foundation" us previously, and instituted instead the present plan of building the breakwater on a sandlmnk? So. —This niodiheatioii did not emanate from Mr. MarChant, but did he not ad-cipt it as part of his plans, 'because lie did not condemn it, tliii*? allowing the work to go on under a pbni that neither he nor Mr. Xapier Bell had approved of? Xo. 4 Having thus tacitly approved, he finds i himself on tire horn- of a dilemma, as i if his wharf plans were carried out | .sooner or later the wharf would be running into the suid sandbank that has to be left a certain, distance from the breakwater to hold it up. So to meet the difficulty hp alters his wharf, and gives it a kink Y\]\o a dog's hind leg. turning it somewhat shoreward*; Xo. 3—lk it not a fact that it is' this plan, on account of its shape, and not Xo. 1 plan, that ha.s been: condemned by Captain Bone and other seafaring men? Xo. o—Finding Xo. ] plan impossible tinder the altered conditions which he had sanctioned, and finding Xo. 2 condemn-1 ed, he evolves plan Xo. 3, or rather ac-' eopts the inevitable, after again having the lead given him by the Board or

some <tf its members, as Ik l says l iir his letter that "Messrs Kinj* and C'onnett had ipnwHjnsiy told liiur' how they would like it done in; any wlmrf intension project; X». 7—Presumably Mr. Mare.liant consider No. ;1 plnn the lies't. as lie says in liis letter than Captain Bon*- aml Captain Mood both approve of it. This being so. how was it he'did not evolve tlie best plan first, instead of ipottering about with the previous two plans. which 'presumably had to be paid for by the ISoanl, and if Xo. :j is not making the best of an awkward predicament. and Xo. I was the best, why did he not insist on Xo. 1 beinjr carried out» Xo. 8 -As practical until, does lie not consider that the future has been somewhat sacrificed for the present, as woubl it; not (lookiim to the future) have been better to build, say. oilfl teet of breakwater on liis Original plan than 1(11111 on the present one, as lookiiur at the comparatively restrict-

eil inea o! water inside the breakwater will il not, wiy. in 211 ye;irs," time he looked upon as bad fmsiuess tn have so Imill, the breakwater that probalily Klft feel from it aJon.;,' all its extension will have to lie lell severely alone nnil (lie siuiil left for fear of the wall slipping (loavii if the (Iredyinjr i- brought too near, thus losing for all pmetieal shipping purposes a tremrixiniK amount of 1 onr nil too little i-paee'l reasoa for witiii}: is that in view oT the controversy now jtoiiijt oil. and tile ninny diver- ( views expressed, it in be as well to try ami jret somewhat near the | real s'tnte of affairs, and Mr. MarehantV letter to you has. [ tliiiik, given a h-i----tiinnte opening for my "aslcinjr him Ihromrli the columns of the t're's's the questions outlined in mv letter.—l am W. A. CUI'XIS.