A Suggestion.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 339, 17 August 1889, Page 2

A Suggestion.

[to the editob.] Sir, —With reference to the silting up at the breakwater, in regard to whioh there is so much discussion going on at present, I will take the liberty of offering you a suggestion, which, if put in practical use, would most likely result in chiefly affecting the removal of what now threatens to be’come a permanent obstacle to our present harbor accommodation; namely, by cutting through the breakwater at the place where the silt now mostly accumulates, and connecting the breakwater by a bridge span of about thirty feet, would in all probability, through the action of the waves of tho sea in rough weather —which are much higher on the outride of the present work, than on tho inside—cause sufficient scour to remove the silt which now accumulates on the bar, and would also, to a great extent, help to prevent the heavy range which now runs along the inside wall in rough weather. It would also allow a great deal of tho silt now carried down the river by small freshes, to be carried through to the cutside, and wash up on the beach, to the east of the break water, and which otherwise, through the .' e . B ' l n °*i haying sufficient strength to carry it into deep water, would let it accumulate on the bar, as at present. Probably the groin now proposed would produce the same result, but there is to be remembered, that if you contract the mouth of the present channel, so as to cause the strong ebb tide to strike the breakwater at on angle, it would then necessitate lighters and small coasters using the river, to engage a strong tug, or probably they would be carried by the strong ebb tide against the breakwater, or vessels lying alongside, whioh might produce a very unsatisfactory result.,—l am, ta., Who Cants ? [At ths last meeting of the Board the Chairman casually asked the Engineer whether cutting an opening through the blocks—on the same lines as our oorreipondent suggests—would help io remove the difficulty, and Mr Thomson replied that it would have the reverie effect; it would allow the sand to come through from the Kaiti ride, Our correspondent is thanked for his suggestions privately oonvoyei’,—En.)