PORT EXTENSION AT LYTTELTON

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28013, 6 July 1956, Page 10

PORT EXTENSION AT LYTTELTON

MISGIVINGS ABOUT PROGRESS BOARD ASKED TO STATE TARGET DATES Doubts that the Lyttelton Harbour j Board was capable of undertaking I efficiently the preliminary works j under its harbour improvement scheme ■ were expressed last evening at a mecti ing of the council of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce. The council called upon the board to publish its | tr “get dates for various portions of the ' scheme. ■ “This £250.000 which the board is I seeking is only an infinitesimal sum when the whole outline of the scheme is considered.” said the president (Mr W. G. V. Fernie). > “The board has already called teni ders, and advised that it intends to I shift 2.000.000 yards of spoil in eight I years,” said Mr R. C. Neville. “I don’t think any of us expected to see the I board take "ight years on what are j only the preliminary stages of the ! scheme. “We have already had the spectacle ■of the board renovating and remodelling its own No. 7 wharf for two i years—time in which Auckland had I built a large export wharf and smaller ports had completed other major works.” said Mr Neville. The board would be much better advised to follow the example of the Bluff Harbour Board and complete its whole scheme in two to three years, 'he said. The council also decided, on the motion of Mr J. Roy Smith, to set up a committee to meet the board and hear its plans for cargo handling while I the improvement scheme is in proI nro.es