THE CANAL.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 378, 27 April 1915, Page 2

THE CANAL.

LYTTELTON OR PORT CHRISTCHURCH? THE CASE FOB THE LEAGUE. The case for the canal to make a iarbour in Christehurch possible was put byDr Thacker and Mr C. Allison in the Choral Hall last evening. Mr C. IT. Gilby presided, and there was a good attendance. Dr Thacker said the City of Christehurch was under-represented oh the Lyttelton Harbour Board. They might Btart with a small harbour at Sumner that would let in timber, coal, etc., to the city. Messrs Allison and Little •were staunch supporters of the canal, "but the case was different so far as Mr Kaye was concerned. He noticed Mi; Kaye was supported by the Citizens' Association. Anything that was branded Citizens r Association was conservative and non-progressive. The Citizens' Association, did not represent the citizens of Christehurch. It was composed 6f just a few men. Dr Thacker criticised various members of the board, and 6aid that for the last few years the board had had anti-Christehurch chairmen, in the persons of the late Mr €feo. Laurenson, followed by Mr Hugo Friedlander, followed by the Hon. R. Moorel They wanted to make Mr M. J.'Mtller chairman of the board. MiMiller was a man whom the people ■would not have at any price under the ordinary representation by a popular vote. He went on to the board on the votes of 39 people —the payers of dues. Was it a credible thing that in the city of Christehurch, with a population of nearly 5)0,000, and a voting strength of nearly 30,000, that a thing like that should be allowed to go on? That it should be permitted that 30 people would put a man on the board, Vhile it took 10,000 or 11,000 of the citizens of Christehurch to put a member on the board? It was a case of vested interests, and it did not matter to vested interests in this city what it cost to land their stuff in their stores. The canal scheme could not be stopped, no matter what they "did. "People tried to put me off," he said, "but I said I would be M.l\ for Christehurch, nnd ; I am, and we will have that estuary opened. Lyttelton will never.be any good to Christehurch as a final port. It may fill the bill till we get something better.'' Mr- Allison, '. he said, was a match in argument for any three of their opponents on the board. "He knows more than any of them," he said, "because you would have to bore holes in their brains to get sense into them." The success of the Jailway connecting Canterbury with the West Coast, he said, depended on a

port being established at Christchurch. .. Mr Allison said he did not believe in -money being spent that was not required to be spent. He did not object to Lyttelton being used for all it was useful for. He gave a resume of what jiad been done regarding the canal proJ)bsal, sketching the history of events oading up to the Commission. ll"r FriedIftuder, he declared, had not dealt fair|jr with him, or the others opposed to htm, on the Harbour Board. Lyttelton was tbo dearest port in the Pomiuion, feeoauss it tvoj so closely connected with i&'J iohw*j) * a <i booauap much delay