THE CANAL REPORT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9252, 3 June 1908, Page 1

THE CANAL REPORT.

. NO OFFICIAL INFORMATION. Various rumours of a more or less definite character have been circulated in the city regarding the report submitted to the Lyttelton Harbour Board by Messrs Coode, .Son and Matthews, in regard to the canal scheme. The position is that the Board decided, by a resolution at its last meeting, that the report should, be communicated to members on its arrival, but should be ; regarded as confidential until it had come before the Board. Any accurate summary of its contents, therefore, can be communicated outside the Board only by a breach of confidence" on the part of some person into whose hands the report has heen placed. The chairman of the Board (Mr 6. Laurenson, M.P.), when seen by a * " Lyttelton Times " reporter yesterday, stated that he was very sorry that any '' statement in regard to the contents j ' of the engineers' report should have ' been published. " The Board decided j<' that the report should be regarded as { confidential," he said, "and its decision should have been observed by the : persons who have been placed in pos- | session of information regarding the engineers' views." Tlie secretary of the Harbour Board (Mr C. Hood-Williams) expressed him- i self in a similar fashion. A state- I ment regarding the contents of the report, he said, could have been secured only by a gross breach of confidence.