The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning. Saturday, July 27, 1889. A GRAVE DIFFICULTY.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 330, 27 July 1889, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning.

Saturday, July 27, 1889. A GRAVE DIFFICULTY.

Bo just and fear not; Lot nil the ends thou aim’st Rt be thy country’s, Thy God’s, and truth’s.

The state of the harbor is such as to cause the gravest apprehension in the minds of all thinking people, and the sneers of our contemporary about a “scare" being raised will have little effect in the minds of ratepayers who know the subject to be of so serious a nature that it should be divested of all party feeling, The truth is what is wanted to bo made known, and the time has come when the fishwoman style of calling one another fools should give way to a more reasonable state of things. So far the Harbor Engineer has had his own way in all that concerns the construction of the pier, and now things have so far advanced that even those whom our contemporary cynically alludes to. as “ amateur engineers ” may, knowing that it is they who are called on to pay for the thing, be entitled to give an opinion at this stage of the works. The cleverest engineer in the world cannot disabuse the mind of such remarkable facts as have lately shown themselves. When the steamers Maitai and Australia went alongside the pier, the fact was justly claimed as a triumph for the Engineer, but we were not then told that in a few weeks’ time vessels of the smallest tonnage would ground at the same place. One does not require to have the knowledge of even an amateur engineer to be convinced that such a state of things is very undesirable, and was in no way to be anticipated by the reports presented to the Harbor Board. No strength of the imagination is required to believe that there is something radically wrong when the schooner Awaroa, drawing five feet eleven inches of water, takes ground in a place where the depth of water is marked on the chart at fifteen feet six inches. A man that cannot prime himself on having passed the sixth standard may have brains enough to know that things are rather serious when the schooner Waiwera, being towed out in ballast and drawing five feet five Inches, takes the ground at high water; that she has to be towed back, get her ballast trimmed again, and then only manages to get out after being vigorously tugged over the sandy bed by the steam launch. It may, to some people who are wilfully blind, be a matter of small importance that two or three vessels have lately got into very dangerous positions at the mouth of the river. But these matters are certainly not of slight importance to those people who have the interest of the district at heart, and it is only right that those who have to bear the burden should know exactly how matters stand. If they do not aspire to become amateur engineers they may at least study what can be observed by those who have eyes to see. Quarrelling about a thing of course does not provide a remedy, any more than a pole dipped into the sand will give an accurate idea of the depth of water. There is no denying that things are not turning out as anticipated, and it is nothing but mockery of the position to say that the inconvenience will be only temporary. If it can be got rid of by a training wall such as that proposed by the Engineer, then that professional gentleman will have achieved a far greater triumph than he has already done, The best reply to those who maintain that the Engineer is infallible is to tell them to go and look at the work as it now stands. It is not merely the sandspit that is the trouble; the Awaroa dragged for a considerable distance up the river. It is now, however, admitted that the sand has come from the westward, but it is attempted to prove that this is the result of the rocks being cleared, and that is considered to be a good feature. If no more satisfactory explanation than that can be given it might just as well be left out. The worst of it is that the evil prophets have so far come out more triumphantly (if it may be so lertßed) than any of us can feel pleased at. As to the Engineer himself it is next to an impossibility for any member of the Board to get a direct answer from him, and the method he has of parrying questions may be considered artful, but it is none the less a ludicrous attitude for one in such a position. If the members of the Harbor Board are convinced that the proposed training wall will be an effective remedy for the difficulty no one can blame them for supporting it, but they have facts before them now which do not require to be explained by an Engineer, and though the position of affairs is at present very grave, there is the danger of making things ten times worse by " tinkering" with the river in the way proposed. The Hoard has to face a grave difficulty, and It would bo wanton folly to make light O-