OPENING UP OF HEATHCOTE ESTUARY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXII, Issue 7411, 29 November 1884, Page 3

OPENING UP OF HEATHCOTE ESTUARY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sin, —With your kind permission I will trespass upon your valuable space with a view of introducing to the public a scheme of undoubted value. 1. It is an undoubted tact that several first-dans marine engineers have reported favourably on the above scheme, which means no expense or taxation to the ratepayer! of this Province. 2. That all produce brought into Christchurch, and all that is exported, will *avo 4s 0d in and 4s 6d out carriage, making a total of 9* per ton ; say, 600,000 ton* at 9s, £225,00C —that is a staving to the Canterbury public in one year. Then again, supposing 500,000 tom at Is Cd per ton wharfage in and out at 9d per ton, this equal* JJ37.500, which i* nearly 10 per cent on .£200,000, the contemplated cost of the project. 3. All promoter* for a Company ask is to have the land they reclaim from high water mark to the bank of their canal, or what is called the foreshore, and the wharfage, viz,, 9d per ton in and 9d out for 21 year*, after which time the wharfage to revert to the Government, tho Company allowing the Government to purchase from them any land the Government may require that ha* not been built upon by the Company, or by private individual*, at a fair valuation. 4. Tho Lyttelton tunnel having been useful, and done it« work, Christchurch now require* a second outlet, a* the trade of Canterbury is largely increasing, and should the West Count railway lie completed, or even begun, the Lyttelton tunnel cannot possibly carry the good*. The opening of the Estuary will certainly prevent the port being overdone, and i» far cheaper than making a new tunnel or a railway vi 4 Sumner. 5. 'l’iie West Coast lino can be made to join tho dock at the canal reserve, and the Avon, with a lock to flush it, would carry a great quantity of sub-soil water or drainage away, 6. Without offering further reason*, it ia bound to be done within a few years, or Canterbury cannot compete with the different direct centres ana distributing port* of New Zealand, which only pay wharfage, and are not handicapped by railway charge*.—-I am, Ac., J. A. MORGAN.