THE PROPOSED CHANNEL TUNNEL.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 15 July 1881, Page 2

THE PROPOSED CHANNEL TUNNEL.

# The preliminaries in connesfion with the boring of the proposed Tunnel have, says a home paper, been attended with (he most gratifying results. No serious impediment has as yet presented itself, and although that part of the work which is likely to be fraught with tbo greatest amount of risk and difficulty has yet to be encountered, there appears to be no reason why the fondest hopes of the speculators, despite predictions to the contrary, may not even now be realised, and the travelling portion of the public reap the benefit of a scheme which, to say the least of it, will effectually reTnove toe unpleasant sensations and the inconvenience which is so often experienced in a passage across " the silvery streak." The boring advances at tha rate of about 25ft per day of ton hour?, and has already been carried to a distance of above 300 yards. The idea is to continue until a depth of some 200ft below the bed of the channel is reached. It is (hen confidently hoped by geolo* gists that the character of the geological formations will admit of the engineering operations being advanced in a direct line or level, so as to allow of a corres* ponding rise on the other side of the channel. The operations are carried on under the direction of Colonel Beaumont, the chalk being cut by a disc furnished with cutters, which is worked by one of that gentleman's compressed air engines. The diso makes two revolutions per minute, slicing off the chalk to the thick* ness of a quarter of an inch at each revolution. There is no change in the soil, which is still grey chalk, and there is a remarkable freedom from the percolation of water.