GOOD WORK BY DREDGE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 43, 21 February 1939, Page 10

GOOD WORK BY DREDGE

KAIONE AT CASTLECLIFF. CAPABILITIES BEING PROVED. "The dredge Kaione is doing better work at Wanganui than she has ever done," said the chairman of the Wanganui Harbour Board (Mr. N. G. Armstrong) to yesterday’s meeting. "We were told that there were all sorts of difficulties to get her ladder down to what she was built to do. Under Captain R. D. Stewart and her present crew of our own men she has been down to 38 feet. I would like personally to express my appreciation to the captain and crew on the work they are doing. She was built by English builders to do certain work and they do not usually make mistakes." The dredge has been to the Imlay wharf and has operated successfully there. Mr. Armstrong said that it was not economical to lift spoil at one place and then move to another and dump it to be washed back again, so an experiment was tried to find a means of pumping the spoil on to shore. The first set of pipes used had been old and had broken. Now a chute had been put up and odd hollows behind Meuli wharf were being filled up. Interviewed after the meeting, the Harbour Board engineer, Mr. R. R. Dawson, said that the windy weather this summer had been a great set back to dredging at the entrance. He was satisfied that the Kaione was capable of much better work than she had done at Wanganui and the past few weeks, notwithstanding the weather, had proved it. The Kaione was pumping a mixture of water and silt yesterday over Meuli wharf. She is to go to Nelson next month and is under contract there for several months. It was reported to the board yesterday that the crew had voluntarily agreed to vary their hours to suit conditions. The board expressed appreciation of that action.