PORT CHALMERS

Evening Star, Issue 19274, 12 June 1926, Page 4

PORT CHALMERS

ITS OUTLET PROBLEM [By.T.SJ Port Chalmers’s problem of the moment is one of outlet. Self-contained and i' '.ying .. lone hand for the retention of its identity, tho .seaport- town has developed a disposition somewhat resentful of outside interference. It is not a churlish attitude when analysed. Rather is it a tendency to self-reliance resulting from outside rebuffs and experiences not congenial to friendly fraternising'with external interests. Although that may bo a characteristic developed as a community, individually the friendliness and sociability of. the people have won for them the oftenexpressed esteem of visitors from all parts of the world. Port Chalmers is all right. It is merely hesitating to step put and take its part in the new conditions brought about by the change of the times. In its way this is the local aspect of the now era of applied modern development. Tho community that is not prepared to step out will hang back and necessarily shrivel into insignificance. Port Chalmers has never exhibited a lack of the aggressive spirit. It is that spirit in which the problem of outlet, consequent on tho. modern development of motor traffic, must lie tackled. And it must bo tackled to seek -solution, not evasion. Motor traffic has come to stay and to grow. The community that makes conditions favorable to its growth will grow with it; the community that trios to block it will try in vain, and only to find its own decay. But it is tho newness of tho problem that is apt to be nonplussing. This was very apparent the other day when tho Mayor of Port Chalmers had a prepared scheme sprung on him on the spur of tho moment. Ho no doubt glimpsed it as. a mere proposal to pay £IOO a year for the upkeep of a road in an adjacent borough. As he.is one of the administrative leaders in the new movement to modernise his own borough, and as he is finding that- the matter of finance is hindering the rate of progress he and his colleagues ardently desire, it was but natural that ho should view without enthusiasm a proposal to find £IOO a year for another borough. On the spur of tho moment ho inadvertently referred to the hindering factors to more rapid improvements in his own borne town. He did not realise at once that the problem was external, although as vital internally. Tho wider viewpoint was for tho moment disconcerting. He quoted finance. Had he merely commented on tho disparity between a city of 70,000 people being apportioned £275 while a population of 2,500 was aseked to pay * £IOO, and had he stoted that nevertheless, the proposed would be laid before his council, he would probably have escaped much pointed criticism. In any case, his council would have had a largo, say in his decision, and it is now considering it. The next question is: Will his council rise to its opportunity? It has an opportunity/ and if it takes it the council may give a load in the dominion. Now, as to what the opportunity is. It is, of course, in connection with tho new development consequent on motor traction, which has comet to stay and grow. The most outstanding feature so far in connection with the motor traffic problem is tho Main Highway. These main highways have not all corao yet, because, like Port Chalmers, many places are looking askance at the now developments. Nevertheless, the Main Highway is an accomplished fact from tho city to beyond Port Chalmers.. Port Chalmers’s need of tho moment is a decent road to the city. Therefore, why not utilise the Main Highway to achieve tho desired city connection? It can be done, and it is also practicable. There is at present a boundary road leading from the Main Highway to Sawyers Bay and thence on to Port Chalmers. From the highway to Sawyers Bay it is the boundary road between Waikouaiti County and West Harbor Borough, ft it easily tho shortest route between Port Chalmers and Dunedin. Herein is Port Chalmers’s opportunity to stop into the front rank by establishing a direct connection to the Main Highway. The difficulties in the way are by no means insurmountable. If the Borough Council demurs at contributing to the upkeep of a road in West Harbor Borough, although that road loads to the city, why not establish a connection with the Main Highway? Then a new principle would unfold itself, and that would he that the borough which establishes a direct connection with tho Main Highway shall bo exempt from contributing to the upkeep of an alternative road, even although all tho borough’s traffic may not take advantage of its Main Highway connection. It is the community that in its sense of self-reliance strikes out to solve its own problems that is going to find ready assistance. Evasion finds hut ultimate disillusion. So does the endeavor to shift one’s own responsibility to other shoulders. M?,ny complaints are being made in regard to tho main highways, hut it is tho Government’s “strike out" to find a solution of the biggest part of tho problem first. W'cro the Port Chalmers. Council to also strike out and establish a direct connection to tho Main Highway the Government would naturally ho sympathetic. It would bo a lead for other boroughs that are also several miles distant from tho highway to do likewise, it would help to solve the reading problem, and it would show a spirit of commendable enterprise.