Timaru Harbour.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume II, Issue 2, 1 June 1899, Page 4

Timaru Harbour.

The shingle question is tiie question in Tiniiiiu at the present time, iiuJ. is becoming more serious every day. The beach line dry at high water has now reached the stiaight. Theie is a bank of shingle all along the bend, and a bar, on which the waves break, half across the haibour entrance. Four laige ships aie loaning gram, and four smaller vessels employed in the coasting trade are loading or , getting ready for sea, and one \b tempted to speculate as to their chances of betting out of port before the enhance is completely blocked. Till the shingle reached the bend the accumulation was a positive protection to the harbour woiks, and the land reclaimed promisee} to be a valuable asset and souiee ofi income to the Board. The heavy seas oi the past fey weeks ■ have lifted the 30-ton conciete blocks, placed for protection at the bend, clean' over the bieak water' into the haiboiu. As has been said there is now a bauk of shingle ail along the bend. Up thus the waves rush and deposit gieai quantities of shingle on the bieak»vater and into the harbour, and the immediate danger is, that another more than ordinary sea will smash the bdiik and % destr6y tt e harbour works. To the ordinaiy onlooLer it seems vain to expect that any means^of man's invention should be able to successfully cope with the force of native at work on the Tunaiu beach. Mr Maxwell, the enunuiit nianne engineer, under whom the gleaner part of the Tmiaiu naroour'' woiks weie built, and who is stni the Board's consulting engineer, was in Tunaiu on Alonday taking sounding inside and outside the haoour, and making a thoioagh inspection. He will lepou at once what he considers ought to oe done, and it io to be hoped moie attention wilt ' be given to his advice than has been the case in the past. Tiie matter may become a seuous oiie for the ratepayeis over the gieater pait of the Waimate county. A laige amount of money was borrowed £01 the comp'eiion of the harbour, and part of this county with other districts is lesponsitile for payment oi inteiesc theieofl, and this will be a' heavy burden ' should the haibour works be destroyed. It is curious to vote that in spite of me very solid facts tp the contraiy. there are people in Tiiiiar u who declare theie is no' danger, and at the Board meetihg one member' on- Friday last declared tue shin g', 6 was flying past the harbour eatiance li like leatrleis." The country membeis of the Board, however, foremost among them the member for tUis -district, Mr J. Manchester, are insisting that the master iniist be thoroughlyinvestigated, the wovst lcnpwnj, and the'i&uiedy, if any, attoixce-apj^lis^."

The arrpLqured_ cruiser Furst Bismarck has been"commissi6nefl to replace the armoured' cruiser Deutschland at Kaioch.au. ' Tlie' first-class cruiser Iltis and the' cruisers Hertha and, Hansa' will 'replace the Oormoran, Princes^' Wilhelm and Kaiser. ~ Several' gunboats have also bo<?n added td the Chinese squadron. M. Beaupre, one of the Judges ( of the Court of Cassation, recommends the revision of Captain Dreyfus's sentence and his retrial. With the view of preventing a demonstration, tho Minister of War has forbidden military officers to attend the iuial sittings of the Court of Cassation, unless they are called as witnesses in the Dreyfus ca^e. The police have also received vigorous instructions to maintain order. The Cub.au foreew have decided not to avail themselves of the o i'er of a lumo sum. made by the Amer.'can Government after the wr, on condition of their disb nd.ng. Previously the offer was refused, owing to the sum bvihjj mien below' the- demands. T^e forces now expreps them- ' salves tiS unwilling to disband. Mr Vagg- 1 , the Queensland meteorologist, lef erring 0 to tho position of the Fer^-S^ire, couside.g that um'er the existing cirenms aiices she ought to make Auckland. ' Six hundred families were renderedhomeieas by the fire at St Jo in, New Brunswick. The Bjard of experts who inqu lvd in J o the explosion of the boiler of a locomotive on the Zeehan railway, report that it waa caused by au explosive substance placed in the fire-box. The Tasmaiiiiin Government o'ffuvri £25'\) reward for the detectioii of the perp itrator. ' ' Canterbury ' mutton is quoted at 4 «Mb'd per lb. in the London market. ' Prime Canterbury lamb' is quoted at 5 7-10 d per lb. The Hon. John McKenzie, New Zealand Minister of Lands;, has arrived in ' London. His health is improved by the trip. ' ' The, Gazette notifies that Parliament will meet for despatch of business on Friday, June 23rd. The Church Assocition are raising '£10,000 in Britain for a protesfcant cj/iipiigu as a protest against 'Ritualism. Merchants engaged in she Australasian produce trade banqueted Mr Thomas McKenzie, the ex-* New Zealand M. H. R,, and presented him with ahandsom® serviej of plate". M. de Blowitz, in a letter to the Paris newspaper, "Figaro," says that the acquittal' of Dreyfus is certain. The Egyptian Government, dre spending £20,000 in 'measures for the prevention of the spread of the plague. ' ' As' a protest against ißufisian mcthpds of administration in Finland, the leadiug Finns intend to be absent on holidays, during the Rufesian Grand DukeVladi-^ mir Alexandrovith's approadhii}& inspection 'of "the Fiiinish g&iV risons. '^ * ' \ "*' ' l - The Hon" A. J. Cadman, in a in a speech to. his constituents \at ' Waihi, definitely a^HLOunced'his intention to retire, front polit'icV at the end of the present Bar lia* "meat. 1 •' ' '-" \ -V; ''-\ J '^ ?>