MR E. J. HOWARD’S VIEWS ON TUNNEL RD. QUESTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18961, 7 January 1930, Page 8

MR E. J. HOWARD’S VIEWS ON TUNNEL RD. QUESTION.

To the Editor. Dear Sir, —I wonder why the advoates of this tunnel road cannot play ’ 1 came fairly? Why should they go of their way to abuse all and • simply because they do not see eye with them? correspondent, A.D., in Monssue. must have been suffering i oad attack of indigestion caused 10 much “good-will” for the New r when he set out to attack me m ply because I supported in an irticle on Saturday the enquiry into this question. I challenge your correspondent to show that I have ever opposed an inquiry into any scheme for the betterment of this city. I have served on as many public bodies as any other individual I know of. I have always supported the obtaining of the fullest and most expert information that could be got on any large question. The writer says that I assisted in the strenuous opposition to the tunnel road in 1918. The tunnel road was not an issue in 1918. In 1917 I was elected to the Harbour Board. I found the board composed of two distinct camps —those who supported a harbour this side of the hill and those who opposed it. I have never been a chair-warmer, so I studied the question to my own satisfaction and then took sides in favour of the harbour this side of the hill. I spent money on lantern slides and went in for open propaganda. I still believe we should have the harbour this side of the hill. I saw Durban when it was an estuary not much better than ours. I saw Durban when

it had been turned into one of the finest harbours in the world. Still believing in the inner harbour for Christchurch, I fully supported an enquiry into the tunnel scheme. I raised the question in the House and asked for a vote. I am a supporter of that enquiry in every shape and form, and go further and say I will support their findings. I may not be converted, but having agreed to arbitrators, as it were, I will abide by their decision. If that is trimming, well and good. To me it is the only way to get things done. I want things done. I want to see Christchurch the hub of New Zealand. I believe it can be, and I am not going to abuse those actuated with the same urge for progress, even if I differ from their point of view. I have never heaved a brick at anyone from behind the wall of anonymity. I have been in public life as long as any other individual of my age, and have fought openly for the things I believed in— I am, etc., E. J. HOWARD!