TARANAKI GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

very smartly handled to prevent them going ashore, the entrance is, however, designed so as to be very easy to take, and, even if missed, a well-handled craft could, we think, be put on the other tack, if necessary, by club-hauling, in time to save her. The somewhat less advantageous position of the entrance is in short one of the modifications which we have considered it right to recommend on economical grounds.

On the other hand, it is in favour of the town site that the piers cross the contour lines nearly at right angles, so that the sheltered area is as deep or even deeper than the water in which the works are proposed to be constructed. This arrangement is greatly in favour of economical construction, and cannot, from the nature of the bottom, be adopted near Moturoa.

By the system of construction hereafter to be described, a portion of the western wall of the Town Harbour may be made to serve as a useful jetty to commence with, at a cost of about from Seventy-five to Eighty-five Thousand Pounds (£75,000 to £85,000); and the completion of the whole of this pier as shown on the plan would give, at a total cost of about Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds (£250,000), a fair Harbour of Refuge for ordinary vessels, and would enable them to lie alongside for a great majority of days in the year, and at all times to hold on safely to fixed moorings; while the completion of the whole work contemplated at an expenditure as stated above of Three Hundred Thousand Pounds (£300,000), would give a very snug Harbour with about one hundred and twenty acres total area of still water of the depths named in the following table:

Between 1 and 2 fathoms, 35 acres

" 2 " 3 " 30 "

" 3 " 4 " 40 "

" 4 " 5 " 16 "

Over 5 " 2 "

Total ... ... 123 acres.

A slight modification of the design is shown in red lines, which might be adopted at scarcely any increase of cost, as shown added. This modification admits of easy future extension, should it be required, so as to form a perfectly safe refuge for vessels even of the largest class, and so to shelter the entrance to the Harbour proper, as greatly to obviate the objection to its leewardly position. We have not minutely estimated the cost of this possible extension, but we believe that even if it formed an integral portion of the design, the whole work could be completed within the sum at which we have estimated the cost of a Harbour at Moturoa, while there can be

no doubt that it would form a better and more convenient Harbour.

Before quitting the question of site, we may add that our attention has not been directed exclusively to those two, into the particulars of which we have entered above; but that no other presented itself possessing sufficient natural advantages to require any notice at our hands.

(2). DESIGN OF THE WORKS.

Having determined on the site to be adopted, we propose to commence the construction of the western pier by building a causeway of large boulders taken from the reef, to a level of six feet above high water spring tides, extending from the shore to low water mark, with a protecting parapet. The design for this causeway is shown on the drawing sheet No. 2, fig. 7. From this, to extend a pier into two fathoms (12 feet) at low water by means of a timber framing filled in with stone and constructed as shown on sheet No. 2, fig. 6—omitting in the first instance the béton covering.

This would provide, at a cost as we have estimated above, of from Seventy-five to Eighty-five Thousand Pounds (£75,000 to £85,000) a useful jetty, with a maximum depth at high water of twenty-five feet, at which vessels could lie alongside in fine weather, until such time as the financial arrangements of the Province would enable the works to be extended, when this portion of them could be rendered permanent by the addition of the béton covering,—first on the outside, and afterwards on the inside,—bringing up the total cost of this portion of the work to about One Hundred and Twenty-five Thousand Pounds (£125,000).

As we consider the extension of this framed timber pier beyond the point we have named would be to a certain extent experimental, we have included in our gross estimate an expenditure necessary to build the remainder of the western pier of stone, in the form of pierre perdue.

At the same time, we think it possible that it may be found practicable during construction to extend the timber jetty to a greater depth than we have ventured to positively recommend, thus effecting a considerable saving; but this is a question which can only be decided by actual experience. We have a precedent (to some extent) for the use of the timber pier in that constructed at Blyth. It is in about twenty feet of water at high tide, and has stood the full force of the north-east gales without any protecting works; but we have yet to learn whether it can be extended into deep water. An average section of the western pier which may be adopted is shown in fig. 5, sheet No. 2.