WANGANUI'S HARBOUR.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13526, 7 November 1911, Page 6

WANGANUI'S HARBOUR.

ITS POTENTIALITIES. Mr Leslie E'cyholds, C.E7,' consulting , engineer to the Wanganui Harbour Board, lii connection with that ,body’s scheme of works, ■ arrived in Wanganui yesterday afternoon. . -Speaking to a “Herald” representative Mr Eeynolds made some interesting remarks on the possibilities ahead in the direction of W-king Wanganui a deep water port.. ' Comparing’ the conditions liere with those'obtaining at Westport, he said that, speaking from memory. West--port, which he; knew well and haii. visited ■often, had, roughly, an outward flow of about 640,000 cubic feet per minute. On the otner hand,’WdngahUi had, roughly speaking, a flow of about a million : and a ~ , third cubic feet per mihu'te,' and most.,of this'was due to tidal area, the river flow, under normal coriditioris; being about 340,000 cubic feet per minute, “With these potentialities ..bebindtrt, .’in• comparison with'Westport,”, said Mr Reynolds, “it ought to he patent, whqt Wanganui can do.” _ . ■■';' “it is riot velocity of current that brings about depth on the.--bar"of' any -river,” Mr Eeynolds continued, “but it is volume. And this can b® : easily proved when we remember .that, above the town, bridge, - the fall of the river is, roughly, only half an inch-t'b th’e mile, and that over a .reach of some 12 miles you could almost run the Gothic. I am taking the. deep channel of the river, ! Arid, when people run away, with .the idea . that, velocity of water means; scou.ring .effect,. I shall just, ref* them to the old Saying that ‘Still waters run deep.’ ” “1 judge the improvement of any river,” he went bn, to say, “by the lessening of the fall. Between Wanganui'and ■ the Heads the fall, when I was first called in to deal with this work,'was, I think, 3ft 6in; The consequence .of this fall, was shallows—what .you termed the ‘flats,’ which it has been my endeavour to .cut out - The less the gradient, the better will the harbour be. So give me volume to work on, not velocity!”.’.. ■; Questioned as to-the woncs already completed, Mr Eeynolds said the results only bore out what lie’ thought years ago, ivhfen ho was firstcalled in to report, and might be taken qs an index of what can be made . of the Wanganui estuary.. When it 1 was considered , that,, with -a'i comparatively small, expenditure, a depth of I.9ft had been obtained on the'bar, he thought the public of Wanganui . ivbuld ; grasp what could be made ;of theiri'estuavy.. -■■ ; i Mr Eeynolds, who has; teen; reporting bn the,Waitara- harbouriiieaves to-morrow for Wellington. ■ :