ACCESS TO THE SEA.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19887, 26 March 1930, Page 13

ACCESS TO THE SEA.

TO I'HE BDITOS Or THE PHESB. Sir, —I believe there is good reason to think that the projected spoliation 0 £ Sumner Bay raised many enemies among those who had no strong preference either way, as uetween Lyttelton gad the canal scheme. The engineers, acting without any particular instructions in this regard, naturally adopted the perfect wave-resisting moles they did, and made for the nearest deep water. Any . other alignment than theirs, so far as wave-resistance is concerned, must be necessarily less perfect. Bat the alignment, unfortunately, and almost certainly, raised hostility that would have been absent had Sumner Bay not been seriously interfered with. It was to meet this difficulty that I made the suggestion on March 15th of a jine for the south mole of about 3200 feet from the Cave Bock to about 19 feet. If from that point the mole went another 2200 feet, say N.E. by E. Kftlf East, it would be grounded in 30 feet, or about the same as the engineers' proposition to Whitewash Head. This would practically conserve all the amenities of Sumner Bay, except the winds and sea from direct north. The northern mole would, of course follow the same parallel line from 19 feet (the bearings being all magnetic). I ffcinV it would be a helpful thing if an opinion could be got on this from a eivil engineering authority, as to its feasibility and probable cost. The ]ine I propose would be more exposed to the east seas, but not, apparently, dangerously so, and would possibly require heavier blocks, necessitating more expense. This would make the south mole 1800 yards long, a little ovor a mile. What makes the idea entertainable at all is the shallowness of the tea. The cost would otherwise be very great. To illustrate the difference in eost between placing moles in shallow waters and in deep we can think of that causeway ovc the estuary in a foot or two of water. It is abgut 3600 feet long. Ido not know what it cost, hot it would be interesting to know What length of it could have been built for the same, money If the water had been 20 feet deep in&tead of one or two, 18 the case may have been. I may be all over the place in my ideas, as your correspondent "Lyttelton" 'Suggests; .hut it must be remembered that I am fighting for what I believe is in the true interests of Christchurch. His Jovenalian methods of tackling the fooblem in the interests of Lyttelton live me just where I was and totally unimpressed.—Yours, etc., - J \AN.S. •ptarek' 25th, 1930/. - y<>

TO THE ißDrroai ;OJr .TOT ,PM»7-/,r.; ' r,Kir. —Sq i'Lytwjlton'.L has tha-audan «i£v to accuse ''Canterbury Born" of introducing Dur din into the controversy. iiis ?eu ks about Duneclm going back to its original scheme atter twenty years show Dow deficient he is in knowledge of harbour construotion. Ah to who shall shoulder the cfltefc of scrapping Lyttelton, or Sumner, does he wish his readers to. believe that the present burden is borne by people apart from those-who are. advocating , a. Port Canterbury on the Estuary ? It is the Canterbury producers that have, to bear the whole burden, whether it is Lyttelton or Port Canterbury on the Estuary- We are asking on their half a report from experts, not from scribblers _ (myself included) as to whether it is possible or not to have a first-clasfi. port for Canterbury established on the Estuary. If it is possible it means tens of thousands in the producers' pockets. In addition, they will be ina better position to shoulder the present debt tor what has been Stent on Lyttelton. As for "Anno' omini," I must confess I am young •nough to remember that my father, away back in the 'sixties, assisted in many ways to build up this young country, and that he was an earnest advocate of direct access fixJm the sea Sfor Dunedin in the early 'R eijties. As J. see Dunedin to-day afV it with what might have be; direct fccess to the sea, it makefllae sincerely trust that not another nf will be \ tpent on Lyttelton until every other .' avenue of access has been and reported on by a board ,of professional : experts. I agree with "Canterbury ; Born," when he asks the pertinent Session, What are our members of xliament doing?— Yours, etc. A SON OF NEW ZEALAND. , March 25th, 1980.