LYTTELTON WANTS.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13109, 7 May 1908, Page 6

LYTTELTON WANTS.

Two Lyttelton deputations brought matters ;of local concern before the members of tno Harbour Board yesterday. The Stevedores' Union sought the Board's influence in inducing the Hospital Board to take over again the Lyttelton Casualty Ward. As we have shown on more than one occasion, an exoellent case can bo made out in favour of this movement, and the arguments of the representatives of the Union yesterday were supported by recent concrete instances of the benefit that the Casualty Ward, now maintained by private subscription, is to the workers on the wharves and the shipping. The mere tacts that about a thousand men are employed about the wharves,, that their occupation, according to Government returns, is the second most dangerous in New Zealand, and •that, in the event of the ward being closed, serious, and possibly fatal, delay might easily occur before the victim of an accident reached the Hospital in town— those are surely sufficient reasons for the Hospital Board to Tesume the reeponaibility for maintaining the Casualty Ward for its' proper purpose—the reception of cases of casualties and sudden serious illness. Wo are glad that the movement in this direction is to receive the influential support of the Harbour Board. The other matter brought under the notice of the Board the nuisance caused by the unnecessary use by steamers of their whistles or syrens. No one wiants to interfero with the blowing of whistles when necessary for the safe navigation of vessels at night. But there seems no earthly reason why tho crew of the tug should be summoned 1 by shrill whistles about daybreak, or why every steamer leaving the port should indulge in a Berk's of ear-splitting blasts for half an hour before her departure. City dwellers may think this is a small matter, but loud and unnecessary noises «we conducive to the comfort and peace of no one, and we are quite sure that if Christelmrch wero grouped round the harbour as Lyttelton is, all unnecessary whistling and syren-blowing would have been stoppeel years ego, as tlioy are already in most of the larger ports of New Zealand. If the practice is prohibited in Wellington and Auckland, it can be prohibited in Lyttelton just as safely, and we hope the Harbour Board will exercise its authority in the matter.