SHINGLE DIFFICULTY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2342, 12 April 1892, Page 3

SHINGLE DIFFICULTY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—l have read with groat care all the correspondence that has been going on for monnth past respecting this subject, and I am still of the same opinion I was of on April Bth, 18S9, aud November 4th, 1890, when I sent a rough sketch with my letter to the Chairman of the Timaru Harbor Board, which was to run a few chains of a groin ,at the curve of the breakwater to the south' This would have held in the shingle for a great number of years, and could be done for £IOOO per chain, if built of rubble stone, as Mr Jones, the contractor for the north wall, told me he would build it for that. This would have reclaimed most valuable land for building purposes, and be a great source of revenue to the board. I am no believer in concrete blocks. Anyone can see for himself on the south side the holes the shingle has made in them by the continual friction. If it had not been for the shingle accumulation, and the spare blocks of concrete thrown at random into the sea on the south side, before this the basin of water on the inside would have been destroyed by large holes driven through the concrete blocks. In England the Plymouth breakwater is made of this rubble stone, and this is all exposed to the Atlantic Ocean. It is the angles of these rubble stones that break the waves. To spend the ratepayers' last sixpence, as it were, in ordering expensive plant from England for removing this shingle when the great body of ratepayers are protesting against it by public meetings and otherwise, seems tome wanton determination, regardless of consequences, which I think the Harbor Board are not justified in doing. I feel certain if an election were to take place at the present time the majority of members, if not all, would be returned opposed to the removal of the shingle. I have signed a requisition to the board asking them to delay ordering this expensive plant till the ratepayers as a body have been consulted. —I am, etc., C. G. Tripp. Orari Gorge, Woodbury, 9th April, 1892. [Just so. The present board will spend the " last sixpence." A new set of men will be elected next year, and they will adopt a different method of dealing with the shingle. The result will be about £IO,OOO worth of machinery lying idlein fact, over-crowding the harbor. Let the people look to it.—Ed.]