OUR PAROCHIALISMS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1547, 17 September 1912, Page 4

OUR PAROCHIALISMS.

THE NEWEST "SHIPPING PORT."

(By TclcEraph.-Bpceinl Correßponarat.) Wanganui, September IG. Wanganui East or, more correctly, th< section which comprises the Ratepayers' Association of that suburb, has suddenly, developed ambitions to become a shipping port, and to that end the Ratepayers' Association arc circulating a petition to both Houses of Parliament protesting aeninst the proposed closing of the tura-table of the Wanganui Bridge. The petitioners "believe that the time is not far distant when Wanganui East will be grown to such dimensions that the extension of the harbour to a point on the eastern bank of the river close> to the new' Dublin Street Bridge (work on wliich, by the way, appears no nearer ro» sumption than before) will bo urgently' required arid demanded." After remark, ing that the population of Wanganui East is now 2000, aud is rapidly growing the' petitioners, ask Parliament to give the' matter due consideration "before depriving so large, a section pf the community of its just rights." Meanwhile, it' may be remarked that there are four miles of river bank on each side of the river from, the town of Wanganui to Castlecliff waiting to he filled up with wharves so that the difficulty of predicting tho exact time when shipping will extend to AVanganul East is apparent. The Harbour Board, Wanganui Borough Council, and tho Telegraph Department nil desire the closing of tho Turn-tablo Board, because they haVe to maintain its machinery in working order, and "open it on demand," though the necessity to do so has not arisen for over ten years,'and is hardly ever likely to arise again. The turn-table of the bridge is really a. legacy of tho early days when a certain proportion of the coastal shipping berthed above the site of the bridge. Smco then, however, (lie upper wharves have been handed over to the river steamers, and the berthage for salt-water shipping has extended more and moro from the bridge downward. Taking both sides of the rivcv from the town to Castlecliff there is enough space to berth hundreds of vessels.