SUMNER BOAT HARBOUR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15716, 8 September 1911, Page 8

SUMNER BOAT HARBOUR.

THE AIAYOR’S VIFAYS

Air H. J. Marriner, the Alayor of otiimler, is opposed to the position in regard to the proposed Sumner boat harbour, as it has been left by the Lyttelton Harbour Beard. “ The Board ” ho said to a reporter yesterday, " has thrown the onus on to the Borough and has shirked its responsibihtios, although it has taken over the rights of the foreshore. I calculated the revenue that might be expocted to accrue in the harbour, and basing it on the goods that aro at present brought into Sumner I estimated the revenue at £631 per annum. I estimated the cost of the harbour at £12,000, which would mean that tho interest and sink>ng f"nd charges would amount to £660 per annum, leaving a slight deficiency. The Board, however, placed the cost of the harbour at £18.000.” He had compared the cost of the mole proposed for the harbour and the estimate by the Board’s engineer for the training wall for the canal. The training wall would be 75C0ft long, 28ft deep, and 37£ft high at lowwater. It would be 125 ft wide at tliP base, tapering to 10ft. The wall was estimated to cost £22 5s a foot. but. the mole proposed, which would be 450 ft long, running to Oft at low water, and only one-third the depth of the training wall, was estimated to cast £37 15s per foot. A competent civil engineer had estimated the cost of the work at£13.500, and had allowed 3s ner cubic yard for the quarrying and tipping of the stone. He had received a letter from the Tinuiru Harbour Board stating that 148,805 tons of spoil bad been put into the eastern extension ninlo, at an average cost of 2s Od per cubic yard. Tn Timaru the spoil had to lie railed four or fire miles, and it was therefore quite possible that the cost in Sumner, where the quarry would he close to the work, would be about 2s 3d a yard. “T' think that as the Board has taken the rights of the foreshore it should take all the responsibilities,” lie said. “ Boats used to go to Burns’s Jettv and further up the estuary, but -the bar has silted up and the jettv lias fallen into decav. Tf tho Board will 1 not shoulder _ its responsibilities it should relinquish its rights to the foreshore. T cannot advise mv Council to j accept the Board’s terms.’’