WHO OWNS THE ESTUARY?

Sun (Christchurch), Volume 1, Issue 8, 14 February 1914, Page 6 (Supplement)

WHO OWNS THE ESTUARY?

To the Editor of THE SUN. Sir, —In reference to a recent meeting of the Lyttelton Harbour Board, it was stated that the Sumner foweshore had been cut out of the jurisdiction of the Harbour Board by the Government. If this is so, can you tell your readers who owns or controls the 1600 acres comprised in the Heathcote Estuary and likewise the entrance thereto. The point is an interesting one, becausesooner or later this Estuary will assume importance should any of the waters in it be opened to navigation, whieh is not an unreasonable expectation, considering the growing population. —Yours, etc., : ENQUIRES.

SUN SPOTS. To the Editor of THE SUN. Sir, —Being a constant reader of your brilliant paper, I naturally detected the first signs of "spots on the sun." For a paper that terms itself Independent, and flies a blatant red flag at its masthead, and carries a militant rooster on its billboards, it has been exceedingly mild in its attack of the other Red organisation up to this time; but. in the absence of any up-to-date or original news, I observe THE SUN dishes up a bit of ancient criticism that appeared in the Wellington "Post," and which you head "Sad for the Federation." The article says that Mr Carey easily beat Mr Young and Mr Howard, and this is- supposed to be a fearful defeat for the Federation of Labour. Let us analyse the defeat. The following are the official figures: —Carey 337, Young 206, Howard 179, Long 154,' Cooper 130, Hunter 30, Slater 8, Rosser 4, Maddison 4, M'Cullough 4; Halligan 1, Thompson 1, Breen.l, Chayton 1. So you see Mr Carey, like Mr Massey, is in on a minority vote, and some people will think the Reds were defeated in the same way that the Liberals were defeated. Not so, Mr Young would have won that seat handsomely if it had not been for a slight mistake. Mr Young was verv busy with strike matters, hence he didn't send out to say he was seeking re-election, the unions assumed he wasn't coming again, and I was nominated. Now my votes and Mr Young's votes together would have beaten Carey by 48, but if we add Mr Long's votes to that, Mr Young would have beaten Mr Carey by 202, or, in other words, Mr Carey didn't score one-third of the votes east. Now, when we take into considerati6n that nearly 10,000 of those affiliated to the Red Fed. had no vote, on account of not being registered under the Arbitration Act, and when we come to consider the fact that the '' new unions,'' formed in some cases by ' special constables, had votes, one begins to wonder why Mr Carey didn't get more. When we also consider the fact that the railway servant exercises : aj block vote of 147, which would probably | go to Mr Carey, it begins to take the'; gilt off the gingerbread. However, Mr Carey won, and I want to congratulate him on his win, but the Federation has nothing to be ashamed of in. their defeat.— etc., i ■ .: E. J. HOWARD.