The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, 5th JANUARY, 1889.

Southland Times, Issue 10056, 5 January 1889, Page 2

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, sth JANUARY, 1889.

Mv Bark's report on the operations of the Otago Harbour Board, a short abstract of which appeared in our local columns on Monday last, is not without interest to the people of Invercargill. A vast amount of money — somewhere about a quarter of a million, if we mistake not — has been spent on what is called the Upper Harbour. Of this large sum a considerable proportion has no doubt been squandered. Such is the case almost invariably in works undertaken and carried out by public bodies. It is one of the ppnalties we have to pay for the pleasure of self-government. But large as the amount- expended on the Dunedin Harbour has been, it most be admitted that there is something to show for it. There is now a channel j available for vessels drawing 20 feet, and this valuable waterway was last year j maintained, says the report, by the natural currents without dredging. This however is not a perfectly correct statement, for the currents are to a certain extent artificial; It | was in fact for tbe purpose of increase ! ing tlie natural eurrema and so render- i ing the harbour self-supporting, so to speak, that tbe principal operations were undertaken. Many people pre- j dieted tbat tbe reclamations at the upper end of the har' our would have the contrary effect. - They said the scour would be weakened, and that the^ channel would silt up instead of deepening — that it would not be possible to keep it open except by constant dredging. These predictions have happily been falsified by the event. It would perhaps be impossible to say what tbe exact effect of the reclamations in question have been. The water which used to cover these spaces was never deep, so that ihe presumption is that the filling of them up ( has interfered quite inappreciably with j the strength ot the return current. Any effect in that way has at any rate been" nothing iv comparison with- the advantages of the training wall. This is undoubtedly the chief cause of th<_ signal success of the Harbour Board's operations. The New River harbour will never- be equal to the Port of Otago. tfafcure. ban settled

that point. But it is, like the Port of Otago, .capable of great improve ment. Want of funds — the aniversal want in these dull times — has suspended operations in the meantime. But a beginning has been made. The times too promise to mend. There is perhaps not much prospect of any great boom. Tbe influx, or rather overflow, of capital from Australia which - was talked* of some time ago hits not yet taken place. Probably there waß not so much capital to overflow as was commonly supposed ; not to say that booms are after all a questionable benefit. _Ji. sober steadyprosperity is better, and there are many signs that this is what is now in store for New Zealand. InTercargill will of course share in the blessings of the good time coming. There is no town in the colony with a more hopeful future. It is the capital of a large agricultural and pastoral district, and it has many advantages as a se%t of manufactures. A. town with such prospects cannot afford to neglect its harbour. Its aim ought to be to bring ever larger and larger vessels to its very door. There is no outward advantage comparable to that of a conrenient waterway; and with a moderate but judicious expenditure the channel of the New River Harbour could be deepened so as to admit of a traffic that would take from our jetty thaHoofc of decay and desertion which it so often presents. The example of the Otago Harbour is certainly calculated to inspire the people of InvercargiU nith hope and stimulate them to exertion.