A GREAT SIGHT.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 April 1920, Page 4

A GREAT SIGHT.

ANOTHER SLICE TAKEN OEJ? . JUOTUfiOA. APPEARANCE OF ROOK CHANGED. The firing of the exnbjife charge on Moturou yesterday was juiie n spectacular event, and amply -repaid the many hundreds who proceeded by motor, tram, oart, and ".shanks' pony" to view the spectacle. At 3.-io, according to plan, the 23 ewt. charge of high explosive was detonated. The tunnel was plainly visible that had been put into the liiil about three-quarters way up for a distance of 40ft, and had taken weeks to mine. The whole of the eastern face seemed to come bodily forward and then dron with a great crash and roar down tile precipitous sides and into the sea. As soon as the dense clouds of smoke disappeared it could be seen that the whole of the eastern aide bore an entirely new appearance to what it had only a few minutes before.

Kroin the position where the tunnel was to the top a slice had been taken as if cut with • a mighty knife, and 40,000 tons of rock—almost like granite —had been brought down, some clinging on to the lower slopes, where it will be crow-barred into the water, but most falling direct into the sea. The whole of the appearance of the base was transformed, and where it before was impossible for a goat to find a footing there will be ample flat to form a roadway. The fall of rock will also give move protection to the jetty on the island and reduce the range of the sp; l in the loenlitv.

:Jv. Lee, the engineer in charge of the operations, is quite satisfied with the result. It had, he explained,\bccn the mention to lire another charge on the south-eastern side, near where the previous charger* had been fired, but the •mnel hail )not been advanced sufficiently to permit of this being done. The work ought to be completed within a month. Mofnroa is estimated to contain five million ton? of rock—which will lie ample for the work in hand—the con-<r.i-M.:o;i of the nibble wall from the •'■land <o flic breakwater, and the extension of the breakwater itself—and when levelled, the base will measure nine acre-;, a fact which, viewing the Sugarloaf now, it is hard to realise.