203 



" 20th — A mile on crossed Kahepurapura, and also another sti-ong stream, 

 passing over good slopes, rising and falling, say, 100 feet : reached Makakahi 

 river at 8 p.m., nineteen miles from Te Hawero. This is the boundary of 

 Crown land. Two miles on crossed Mangahinau stream, and followed its 

 course for some way. One and a half miles further crossed Mangahuarere 

 stream. At 11.20 a.m. crossed last stream on this side of watershed, say, 

 twenty-four miles from Te Hawero. The bush along this track is very open 

 and free from supple-jacks and scrub : a good horse road very easily made. 

 The track now ascends the water-shed range — rises some 500 feet to a flat top, 

 ascent pretty good. Flat at top, say one and a half miles, and then a descent 

 of 700 or 800 feet to crossing of liuamahanga river, at the head of Opaki 

 plain, some fourteen or, fifteen miles from Masterton. This descent is steep, 

 but by exploring we found a leading spur from the flat top, going about one 

 and a half miles lower down the Ruamahanga, which gives a good descent : 

 we marked and partially cleared this. Crossed the Ruamahanga at 1.30 p.m., 

 and walked over the Opaki plain to Masterton, which we reached about 

 7.30 p.m." 



Art. XLIX. — On the Raising of the S.S. "Taranaki." By J. T. Stewart. 



("With Illustrations.) 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, November 13, 1869.] 



Although this subject has been already brought a good deal before the public, 

 and the main facts stated, I have thought it advisable to lay a more de- 

 tailed account of it before the society, at the risk of appearing to go over a 

 good deal of the same ground that the public prints have already done. 



Taking a good deal of interest in this matter from its start, I have 

 collected the following details, principally from information supplied to me by 

 Messi'S. Seagar and Thirkell ; and I have made the accompanying sketches 

 from that information, and from inspection of the gear used by them. 



The screw-steamer " Taranaki," belonging to the New Zealand Steam 

 Navigation Company, was wrecked and sunk in Bowden's Bay, Tory Channel, 

 Queen Charlotte's Sound, on the 19th August, 1868. 



Her tonnage is 299 register, h. p. 100, length of keel 182 feet, beam 

 25 feet, and depth of hold 16 feet. 



She was a new boat, built on the river Clyde, in Scotland, a locality now 

 taking the lead in British iron shipbuilding. 



Shortly after the wreck the company called for tenders for raising her. 



The Directors, howevei-, declined undertaking the task of raising the 

 wreck, and it was sold to a few residents in Wellington, in the beginning of 

 March, 1869, who then took steps for raising her. 



Several schemes were proposed to them, but that submitted by Messrs. 

 Seagar and Thirkell, of Wellington, was chosen, and the cai-rying out of 

 the operations was entrusted to them ; and the result shows the choice was 

 judicious. 



I shall endeavour to give a short account of the scheme as proposed for 

 raising her, and then give some notes of the successful carrying ont of the 

 operations. 



The wreck was supposed to be lying in about one hundred feet of water, 

 and the weight to be raised was estimated at about 450 tons. 



1st. There was the floating-power required as a base to work from, and 

 to carry this weight in addition to the men and the plant or apparatus. 



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