Draining of the swamps east of Tauranga to convert to farmland.
The Rangitaiki Outlet diversion to sea at Thornton.
In January 1912 The Lands Dept. ordered from England , by cable , two steam powered PRIESTMAN Dredges . They duly arrived in Auckland in March 1913 ,then delivered by scow , one to Whakatane and one to Matata. The pontoons had been constructed locally , ready for the Priestman components to be assembled and mounted.
One unit known as #4 was then towed to the job site .
Meanwhile the sand dunes had been parted by horse and scoop teams and a channel formed for the dredge.
Photo shows #4 excavating with a clamshell bucket and depositing onto either of the two chutes that slid the material well away from the working , to become stopbanks.
Note the size of the machine relevant to the man standing.
Interesting statistic;
In the 1914 financial year Priestman #4 removed 82,850 cubic yards at a cost of 3.9d per yard . The horse scoop teams excavated 35,650 cubic yards at 6d per cubic yard.
Subsequently two further Priestman’s were ordered.