NORTHERN NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1476, 28 February 1880, Page 23

NORTHERN NOTES.

TIMARU. 11. THE BREAKWATER.

This important work is already beginning to show signs of progress The work ia hand consists, as yet, of otly a straight wall of concrete blocks ruu oub to seaward, trending a little northwards. Ifc is 450 feet in length, ao far, acd about 25 feet in width. It takes its start a little couth oE Uia Government landing, place, and quite close to tho railway station. As the Board has about L 85,000 in hand, baUuca of a sum of LIOO,OOO handed over to them bylhe late Provincial Government, with accrued interest there jd, they can push on the works with vigour. In six months it is anticipafecd that tha "breakwater will be sufficiently far out for small vessels and etaanaers to go inside it in fine weather, but I do not suppose it will bo of much practical benefit till a parb of the return wall to the northwards is completed, probably two or three years hence. Tho easiest part of the work is being done at preseut, as the wall is end on to the H«a. The advantage which Timaru has over Ocimavu, however, is in the greater depth of water, and if ever tao who'e design ia com- | plated, veasols of large tonnage will ba abb to Ho in perfect safety inaidd the artificial harbour in oil weathers. But it will, I expect, cost L'loo,ooo, and take fiva years to carry it to that point. Oaa great danger has baen enouutiteced in couneotioa wild the filiingle. The wall starts solid from tho beach aud intercept,-! the nioviog shingle, iusfcead of the IM-ec beis-g allowed, au Sir Joha Coodo alvioeJ, to travel under a:i open-w.irlc viaduct, Tho coas.cjueuco lus basn that to tho snuth oi the wall vajfc ixussjs ol shingle havo gathered and ovorea vp 11m " ways" of oae of the boating sirvioe»/whih nortli of the waU. the bunch )):came donudod of shingle, and was cut into by the • waves.

Breastworks are now made, but I expect this ehinsle question will yet give trouble : it ba3 already caused a good deal of expense. Oa the whole there is good reason to hope that all difficulties will be surmounted, and at the very least the boating will be carried on under excellent shelter and at much lens expense. I alluded to tha fact that the saving on shipping from Tira&ru aa compared with carriage by rail to Lyttelton, ought to average 9* or 10a a ton. Of course this would only be realised if rates of freight from Timarn to the ultimate pirt of destination were the same as from Lyttelton. Last year, I believe, four or five vessels) haded for England. This year, as freights ia Australia and elsewhere are i/iuch higher, tonnage will not be so easily obtained for oubports at the B&me rate of f rei'ht. as from chief port*. But the profits on agriculture are cut so fine in average yeara that if; will be an imtnens 1 ) boon to the district to save even 5s a ton, which on a crop of a ton to the aero from 1000 acres means L 250 per annum, or if 100,000 acren were in crop, would mean no less than L 25,000 per annum— a sum more than sufficient to pay iuterest on L 400,000 at 6 per cent. With those facts before us, we ought not to allow oursolvea to feel jealous of the progress of euoh harbour works aa those at Oamaru ' and Tiniaru because they may somewhat affect the shipping trade of Pore Coalmi'rs and Lyttelton. The progress of the Colony »3 a whole will benefit the larger centred iv the end, though the outports may compels more successfully than heretofore. Port Chalmtra must look to its laurels, and improve the bar at the Heads, or one day it will wake up t'i find Timaru a belter port for large vessels.

THE TRADE OF THE PLACE,

I hear everywhere tho same story of the sins of the bank*— • chiefly of A bank— in pressing advances on men. and then, when they have committed themselves to the purchase of land, pulling them up severely. There have been numerous failures andnvinylosapsthafchavenot amounted to aoHolu'O failure. Tha farmers are heavily weighted by being in. so many cases tied up to merchants, and b»eid«a having to pay interest of money, are s^arcsly frae to sell an their own time and their own price. They are thus, in addition to otliar attacks from insects, preyed on by Wn-hyged creatures of the class Agenta coinmissionis. The timo will come, no doubt, when the farmers will baud together in s»lt> defence. Grain won't staud two or three intermediate profits between tbo producer aad consumer. lam inclined to think that Ihi3 a»d some o^her refornu will be forced upon the settlers by the> bad times. O.'je good eff-ct has bean to prevent the price oE land going up altogether out of sight. I believe while interest is at Bor 9 per cant., LlO an acre is as much as a farmer can afford to give on deferred payments for good land within Beven miles of a railway station, and it was running up to Ll4 or Lls an aore, or even mora. I cannot endorse Jud^e Bathgate's statement that L2 los to L 3 per acre i* the average return from good laud iv New Zealand. We have hardly arrived at a safe average yet, but I should say, taking the last three years, 30a an acn is more like the actual mark. Extreme prices only drive out Bftttler3 of the best class — meu with monsy to lose — and introduce instead a class of speculators. " S weet are tho uses of adversity," and I hope we have sounder and more prosperous times before iw in consequence of the pinch we are enduring. The Tixnarn district, with its magnificeub resources, shouH not be the last to recover.