THE Thames Advertiser. AND MINERS NEWS.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1834, 8 June 1874, Page 2

THE Thames Advertiser. AND MINERS NEWS.

From one of the recommendations ;of the committee appointed at the late meeting with respect to harbour accommodation, we must dissent. They have come to the resolutiou to ask the Government to" extend the Goods Wharf, which we are convinced would be a mistake and an utter waste'of money.' 'Some 1 two or three years' ago, a great pressure was brought upon the Government to build a goods wharf, and Mv.. .Gillies;agreed, with,reluctance to build it. And what has been the result ? It has formed a point for the deposition, of tailings, till it. is now almost ! useiesßi; having become silted hip to such an extent that the smallest , vessels find a difficulty in getting upjto it at high,watter, while those larger vessels which have recently come here, have had to put their cargoes on shore at the Tararu Wharf or at Curtis's Wharf. The stringers of the structure, which some eighteen months or two years ago, a man could get under, are now becoming covered: by the tailings, these tailings also working mischief in another way by spoiling the anchorage. extension] of two! or three hundred would'cost pro- : bably £4,000 or £5,000, and wojild give very little more depth of water than the present wharf had when it was built, and in a year or two would be as useless as that wharf is now. ;To take such a wharf as the Goods Wharf ;outifto actual, deep watery where the run of the river and the tide would keep the stream clear, is, we take it, simply impossible; it would beS far better and cheaper to bring passengers and cargo frpm.Kopu or Tararu. Between Tararu aud Kopu there is] no place where a wharf cau be put jout where it would not at once become a centre for the deposition of tailings, 1 and,;; wherp; it.,'.would'; not.;vßp(m' become quite useless! The sooner we recognise this fact the better.* There is going'on

from natural and artificial causes, and; this-we ought to aid rather than contend against. As to the repair of Tararu Wharf, for the purpose of accommodating the passenger traffic, that is, of course, a work necessary to be done at once, and we think that- the money would be much better spent in making a bridge over, the Kauwaeraiga and a tramway to Kopu, where vessels with coal and other cargo could lie in absolute safety. Besides this, Kopu has one strong argument in its favour. Vessels taking cargo from this placeinvariablyload timber, and that has to be procured from within the Thames river. At present therefore many vessels have to go up the.river to load, after unloading at great disadvantages and risks at Tararu and Grahamstown. If they had therefore to. go up the. river at first, and unload, at Kopu, they'cbuld take in their, cargo, at once. With a wharf at Tararu,' and i accommodation for large vessels, at" Kopu, we should then be able to get along and wait for the plan of'''Reclamation and harbour construction which have ; ';been l .pro« mised. In referenceto "that weshoulcl hesitate in giving a decided opinion, bub it the channel of the Thames, river can be shifted so as to bring deep water nearer the Bhore, and the land inside that reclaimed, we would have one of jthe finest harbours in New Zealand. In that, case Kopu would not be used for vessels, but any' money spent upon it. ..would not'. be, thrown away, as it must, always be a' useful place for river traffic. " ,'..'.'." ,