FORT BRITOMART.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 133, 13 March 1872, Page 3

FORT BRITOMART.

On Saturday morning, shortly after six o’clock, the demolition (f this Fort was commenced an earnest by the first charge of powder being exploded. The contract is in the hands of Mr Owen Jones, and during the past few weeks a number of men have been employed in clearing away the buildings nearest to that portion of the Fort known as “ .Soldiers’ Point,” and also in putting in a tunnel for the purpose of undermining the Fort with gunpowder. This tunnel was put in a distance of some sixty-two feet in a direct line. At the end of this were two cross tunnels, each ten feet long. At the extreme end of the furthest tunnel, the charge of powder was laid in bags, the amount being fifteen hundredweight. Thin copper wires were inserted into the powder, as well as two lengths of Hancock’s fuse. The drive was then plugged up. It was intended to have exploded the powder at daylight, hut the matter was kept a secret, and very few persons were present except those who were specially invited by the contiactor, and, of course, the Government engineering staff. Shortly after daylight, an attempt was made to fire the charge by the copper wires, but for some reason or other the battery would not act properly, and at six o’clock it was resolved to lire it in the old-fasbioncd way. The fuse was, accordingly, lighted, and in exactly a quarter-of-au-hour the explosion took place. On each side of the point the ground was seen to sway outwards, while the centre of the point rose in the air for a considerable distance and then collapsing, hundreds of tons of stuff came with a crash on the roadway, making a breach up which the people could afterwards walk into the old Fort. It was then found that the entire point of the cliff had been shaken ami cracked. The amount of stuff actually blown down was estimated at some three or four hundred tons, while fully a thousand tons must have been loosened. It is proposed to take down the whole ®f the Fort, which will he doubtless done within the contract time of ten months. The mass itself will he used to make the roadway across Mechanics’ Bay, while upon the site of the Fort the railway-station of the Auckland and Waikato railway will be constructed. The blast of Saturday was highly successful, and went off without the slightest mishap. The shock was of course felt throughout the city. Numbers of people, who were ignorant of the cause of the shock, imagined for the time that Auckarnl was being visited by an earthquake. We think Mr Jones is to he congratulated upon the very satisfactory manner in which he is carrying out his contract. — Herald.