The Taranaki Herald. NEW PLYMOUTH, MAY 20, D1865.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 668, 20 May 1865, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. NEW PLYMOUTH, MAY 20, D 1865.

HARBOUR WORKS. It is scarcely necessary after the experience of .the last fortnight to enlarge upon the necessity for some protection for snipping in ibis roadstead. Although the frequent wrecks which have occurred here during the past twelve months may be attributed partly to the less efficient working of the Harbour department (since in that short time they have exceeded in number, we believe, the total that took place in the previous twenty-three years), and cannot therefore be advanced as the sole reason for a harbour, yet it must be remembered that these wrecks could hardly have occurred if we had had a harbour, and, moreover, it must be borne in mind that the increase of commerce in this place after the war is over and the establishment of settlements, north and south, will necessitate the employment of more vessels and consequently increase the risk of those casualties.' But the main argument for the prosecution of Harbour works is to be found in the annual loss which the whole community sustains,, a loss which will increase almost in the proportion in which the population and settlement of the country increases, and which must continue so long as we have no harbour. In December, 1863, a letter appeared in this paper writ, ten by the Collector of Customs showing that the annual loss to the settlement at

that time might be. reckoned at £16,000. So far from this calculation being an exaggerated one we believe It might be shown to be below the mark ; but adopting Mr. Chilman's figures as a basis, and looking forward to the increase of population from the location of settlers on their land, it may fairly be assumed that if nothing be done in the meantime the direct loss would soon amount to £30,000 a-year instead of £16,000. But this sum, though large, by no means represents the whole loss the Province would sustain; the indirect loss would probably be far larger. Admitting that the Waitara will to a certain limited extent suffice for the wants of the settlers to the northwards, yet there is a large district at the back of town and to the southwards that is dependent upon New Plymouth as its port of shipment. If, besides the cost of conveyance to the port, the sum of from 20s. to 30s. a ton is added for the extra boating charges and freight, it becomes a prohibition to the export of timber and potatoes, the two articles that will be produced in the first instance by new settlers, and will at all times be an extremely heavy tax even on articles the most favourable for export {for most agricultural produce is bulky in comparison with its value), and would make it difficult for settlers here to compete with other provinces in spite of greater natural advantages. That timber would become an article of export to a large extent is very probable if it could be shipped here at the* same cost for putting it on board vessels as at other places ; our rimu at least would certainly have no difficulty in finding a market if the cost of shipment, &c., were no greater than in a harbour.

Having pointed out some of the advantages that would ensue to this Province from the formation of a harbour we will briefly advert to it as a work of colonial need and utility as a harbour of refuge. On the west coast of this island from the North Cape, or at least from Hokianga southwards, there is not a single safe harbour approachable in really bad weather unless Wellington be considered on the west coast. With the rapid increase of the coasting and inter-colonial trade which must ensue from the occupation of the hitherto waste country between the Waikato and Whanganui, a harbour of refuge will soon become a necessity, and the only place on the coast, so far as we are aware, at which it could be constructed is at the Sugar Loaves where the outline is in a great measure marked out by nature.

The expense of completing such an undertaking we have no means of arriving at pending the report of Messrs. Doyne and Balfour, but the least expensive portion of the work — that of connecting the main land with the Lion Bock and the pointed Sugar Loaf, taking the natural reef as the line — would be not only a part of the whole scheme, but in a measure complete in itself, giving great facilities for discharging vessels and affording protection from most of the prevailing winds. With the addition of a small tug (which from what Mr. Balfour said would find shelter, we believe, at all times in the corner by the Lion Bock) to tow out vessels when necessary in northerly weather, this work would accommodate shipping until the larger and far more expensive portion of the undertaking — the curved arm in deep water — could be accomplished. As the estimate for the whole of the work could not be completed in time to lay before the Assembly at its next session, we hope steps will be taken to obtain an estimate of the cost of the j portion of the work we have named. But though the immense saving to this Province, and the great benefit to the commerce generally of this coast from the formation of a harbour here, constitute the main arguments in favour of it, there is a subsidiary but by no means unimportant one which should not be overlooked — the political importance of such a work. The greatest security we can have against future outbreaks of the natives is the permanent occupation of land by working settlers. The great drawback — we had almost said the only one — to the rapid and profitable occupation of the land will be the difficulty and cost of carriage ; and as the principal .market for our produce will ultimately be out of the place, ' carriage ' must be taken to include ship, xnent and freight. If the difficulty in this respect be got over, the land will sell not only more rapidly, but at a much better ! price, and the population would soon increase to such an extent that there would .be little fear of a return of the Native difficulty. Gn the other hand, if from the loss of a market through high freights* and 'boating charges, the settlers cannot dispose of more of their produce than is wanted for home consumption, the settle- ', ment and cultivation of the land will be indefinitely retarded, and Hie weakness of a politically important part of the colony be indefinitely continued. The question of raising money for carrying on Harbour works is one that cannot be gone into completely until an estimate of the cost has been procured, and until it is known how much land is to be confiscated, but the sources from which the funds are to be derived may be indicated. It is thought that a sum little if any short of £10,000 might be raised by the sale of a portion of the Town Beserves. f These reserves, we believe, amount to upwards of £00 .acres, one half at least of which might be set. apart for Harbour endowment ; this and the land reclaimed '. at the mduth of the Huatoki (if this pays more tiian expenses) would probably real- • ise the sum named ; there is also the land which would be reclaimed on the beach 5 Bear where" the Harbour works would be. ..The present resources of the Province ■would be about exhausted after these reserves are sold unless there are any scraps of the* £25,000 loan left, and for any farther sum we must look elsewhere. If the General (jovernment would sanction the appropriation of say £1 per acre upon all country land sold here as a Harbour fund; and a portion, pay a fourth, of , the proceeds of the sale of town sites, sufficient

money might be raised for the completion of the first portion of the work, and by that time we should probably be in a position to see our way to doing the whole.