CANTERBURY PROGRESS

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16398, 18 December 1918, Page 5

CANTERBURY PROGRESS

TO TIIE EDITOR OF "TUB I'EESS."

Sir, —Your correspondent, '-Thin Wedge," in this morning's issue of .your j journal throws out something in the nature of a challenge. He speaks of ] i two schemes to cure the disease from ( 'which Canterbury is suffering, and takes the opportunity of "plumping I for an improved Lyttelton and condemning the canal project. Ho is certainly right in ascribing most or. our ills to deficient transit service, but all the same his bias in favour of Lyttelton has tho appearance of gratuitous challenge. It is to be hoped that you will impartially give both sides a hearing. The reasons advanced for a Port Cbristchurch scheme aro accepted as good enough by a majority of tho Christchurch peopie, who know very well that a port seven miles o/f and separated by mountains 1200 to 1400 feet high from tlio city, must always be a poor substitute for a port which can be taken to within two miles 01 Cathedral square if need be and accessible from the whole 32 points of the compass. There is no comparison m the matter at all. The two schemes would not compare it Jjvttelton could be improved for nothing, instead of which it is estimated that such improvements, including the railways, aro to cost £600,000. -Now, sir, taero is one way to test tho feeling of the people on the matter, and that is by direct vote on the following questions, viz.: "Are you in favour of retaining Lyttelton as tne port.-" "Aro you in favour of establishing a i'ort Christchurch via tlie estuary ?" To make the test a satisfactory one, so that people will go to the poll in their maximum numbers, it would be necessary foi* tne powers that be to be able to explain that tho wish of the people in the matter will of a certainty bo carried out , as soon, ab the necessary arrangements can be made. Your correspondent j talks of tho boundless resources of Canterbury, if not in those words.. As a matter of fact we have very few resources; if we have any, what aro they? That is precisely why v,o have to creatc trade, because we have not got it; and by establishing quick transit direct to sea through tne estuary we hope to create a large transit trade and a large manufacturing trade as a natural sequence. We have in fact to show more enterprise than is ordinarily looked for, because we have no natural advantages in North Canterbury, and it is worth trying becauso good communications, and good comunications | only, by sea and rail, are the only practical possessions that ar© to save Christchurch from stagnation, and the reasons why these communications may have the desired effect is that, after all, Christchurch is geographically well placed so far as the north part of the South Island is concerned, and also in a leas degree so far also as the Ji»ast Coast of the North Island is concerned. .We may, and should, develop a largo trade to Westland, Nelson, and Marlborough, but we want quick sea ingress for the imported goods demanded by these places; and via Lyttelton is not quick, and we want quick egress for locally manufactured goods to the North Island, etc., and again Lyttelton fails us. English and Australian manufacturers opening up branches in this country know this as well as ivc do; consequently they avoid Christchurch and go to Wellington. The thing is as plain as a pike-staff to anyone who is not hopelessly biassed. It is shouted at ns from the housetops. Almost every other year if records are examined it will be found that firms in Christchurch shift their headquarters to Wellington. Why? Because they cannot receive and cannot distribute owing to the disabilities of a port separated from the warehouses by seven miles of country, incldding a range 1400-foot mountains* — Yours, etc-.. CHAS. D. MATSON. December 17 th.