17 



time to time over our great Public Wc 

 is due to what I would call political expediency. The 

 residents on each river in their, no doubt, justifiable desire 

 for better means of communication to enable them to send 

 their produce to Sydney and other large markets, have 

 persistently advocated the improvement of their various 

 waterways, with the result that the sums of money avail- 

 able each year for this class of work have been divided up 

 so as to keep a number of these river entrance works going 

 as far as possible, but, in many cases, partly completed 

 works have of necessity been suspended for long periods, 

 with the result that owing to the new conditions thus 

 created, large quantities of beach sand have been drawn 

 into the entrance on the flood tide and deposited in the 

 form of new bars by the ebb tide, in some instances making 

 the entrance more difficult than before the works were 

 started. In other cases, owing to insistent agitation, it was 

 found expedient to start those portions of the works which 

 could be most quickly and cheaply put in hand. Two 

 notable instances of this might be mentioned. There is no 

 doubt that from an engineering point of view the southern 

 breakwater at the Manning River entrance and the nor- 

 thern breakwater at Cape Hawke should have been the 

 first works undertaken at these places, but owing to the 

 time required to construct wharves and other preliminary 

 work and to the cost, the breakwaters nearest to the 

 quarries, which could be carried out more rapidly and 

 at the smallest cost, were put in hand first, with the result 

 that so far these works have not effected the improvements 

 anticipated, nor can good results be expected until the 

 works as designed, with probably some additions or modifi- 

 cations necessary on account of altered conditions caused 

 by the works remaining unfinished for so long, are completed. 

 Briefly, the results to be attained by the construction of 

 training walls and breakwaters at 



B-May 4, 191P. 



