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New Zealand Mail, Issue 764, 22 October 1886, Page 22

Harbour manufacture, as we pointed out last week, has not been a conspicuous success in Oamaru. It would not be an exaggeration to characterise the result as a costly failure. But unhappily, Oamaru is not the only

i little town which has set up this most expensive and risky of local industries. Several other places have indulged in the luxury of artificial harbours. Of these the only one that can justly be accredited with any success is that of Timaru. At present the ./fimaru breakwater seems disposed to stand firm, and to serve a useful purpose. But it has involved very heavy colonial expense in repairing and securing the railway line, which was seriously damaged and endangered by the de flection of the sea-action set up by the breakwater, and the Engineer-iu-Chief, in a very strongly-worded memorandum, recommended that the breakwater should be at once destroyed by means of dynamite. Since then the action of the various natural forces has, to some extent, become modified, and meanwhile the breakwater is claimed to be on the whole a success. But in this respect it stands quite alone. The “ frightful example ” of Oamaru has already been referred to, and we believe it was lately brought very forcibly under the notice of the good people'of Napier, who are burdening themselves with costly harbour works, and who were earnestly advised to inspect the Oamaru works before they plunged any deeper into the perils and expenses of harbourmaking. Of course this advice will not be followed. Whether they will be more successful than their Southern neighbours remains to be seen. Another “ frightful example ” —if we may believe what we hear—is New Plymouth. People who have lately visited Taranaki during rough weather have seen some very strange sights on the New Plymouth breakwater. They describe the sea as flying right over the top, and even capsizing trucks standing thereon, while the shipping accommodation afforded is of the most meagre and unsatisfactory character. The New Plymouth people made some desperate attempts last session to obtain power to borrow more money, in order to extend their harbourmaking operations, but they were met with resolute and successful opposition. It is notorious that a vast sum will be needed to finish all the artificial harbours now in course of manufacture in different parts of the Colony, and it is equally certain that the localities interested are unable to bear the burden of interest which would be involved. Frankly we do not believe that there is any intention of bearing such burdens. There is little doubt that all these costly local undertakings have been deliberately entered upon in the conviction that sooner or later the burden can be shifted on to the shoulders of the Colony. This idea lias often been mooted, and it is well known that strenuous efforts have been made to bring about an arrangement by which the Colony should take over these precious “ harbours ” with their responsibilities. It has been broadly hinted more than once that, if the localities concerned prove unable to pay their interest, the Colony would have to find the money, as it could not afford, tor credit’s sake, to let them make default. Evidently the scandalous repudiation proposal of the North Otago Times (with which we dealt last week) is largely intended as a means of frightening the Government into giving or devising some aid to Oamaru, which is undoubtedly crushed to the earth by its municipal and harbour liabilities. The Colony, however, cannot afford to take over these preposterous local debts, and this cannot be too clearly understood. It is much to be regretted that the various local bodies were given power to enter into undertakings which they were manifestly unable to carry through. But as they have chosen to rush into these responsibilities with their eyes open, they ought to be allowed to take the consequences. There is no possible justification, for the transfer of their responsibilities to the already over-weighted shoulders of the colonial taxpayers, and we earnestly trust that whenever such a proposal shall be made —which will inevitably be the case ere long—it will be sternly and resolutely nega tived. The Colony has its hands quite full enough as it is, without taking over a whole string of costly failures in artificial harbours—constructions which ought never to have been undertaken at all.