CHRISTCHURCH PORT PLAN

Taranaki Daily News, 29 May 1933, Page 9

CHRISTCHURCH PORT PLAN

SCHEME’S WARM ADVOCATES. FACILITIES FOR INDUSTRIES. “The success of Port Christchurch will depend not only on lower freights and convenience of access, with fewer handlings of goods and greater rapidity of despatch, but also very largely on whether ..it will attract new industries to the city,” said Dr. J. W. Crawshaw, in speaking to the Christchurch branch of the Town Planning Institute recently. In drawing attention to the significance of the Manchester Ship Canal to Christchurch, Dr. Crawshaw said he considered that the Port Christchurch scheme, if pursued, would absorb the unemployed locally and, in addition, would, give a great impetus to trade in the district. “The spending on the port scheme or a considerable proportion of the sum of £2,000,000 or £3,000,000, spread over two or three years, in the district on labour, which would employ most, if not all, of the workers now unemployed, would give a great impetus to trade in the locality,” said Dr. Crawshaw. “This, though not a good reason for advocating the construction of the new port, would be a side issue of very great value to the community and to the country at the present time. The scheme would provide occupation of great productive value for many of the surplus workers of the district. “The success of Port Christchurch will depend very, largely on whether it will attract new industries to the city. In immediate proximity to the wharves, in whatever part of the Canal Reserve or . : -the Estuary they may be situated, there are several hundred acres of land ready for industrial development, while a very considerable area of the Estuary is capable of easy reclamation. A considerable number of private wharves could be built along the waterway if the docks were situated at some part of the Canal Reserve. “Christchurch,” Dr. Crawshaw added, “has been passed over as the location of several valuable industries established during the last few years by British firms; The unsatisfactory port facilities, accessible by only a single line of railway and without provision for vehicular traffic on the wharves, is probably responsible for this. It is this disadvantage which the construction of Port Christchurch would remove.”