The Western Star. (PUBLISHED WEEKLY.) SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1877.

Western Star, Issue 184, 17 March 1877, Page 4

The Western Star. (PUBLISHED WEEKLY.) SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1877.

The urgent entreaties that we have so frequently poured forth to awaken the people and their representatives to the vital importance of paying primary-atten-tion to the harbour have hitherto failed in arousing sufficient exertion. We are afraid that the apathy shown is not from want of sense or ability, but the. instinct of/self-preservation seems utterly overshadowed by a miserable policy of carrying on a dogged opposition to whatever somebody else proposes. Eiverton will never and can never rise whilst petty jealousy and personal spitefulness are allowed to overrule the interests of the whole. The snarling, snapping, and contradicting one another led to a most ridiculous piece .of engineering in the position of the bridge. The jetty is unworthy of its' name; and with the bar shallowing, banks being formed in the river (through the position of the bridge), and in the absence of an ordinarily safe

wharf, there is very little more left for extreme conservatism or the do-nothings to show than a handsomely photographed portrait of their member, garnished and beautifully embellished with those of the Harbour Board. We speak more in sorrow than in anger, but in justice to the place we live in, and whose interests wo endeavour to serve, it is impossible to hide or even gloss over what is so palpable to everybody. There is one vessel in grief and under water, through a wharf of 40 feet being used for a vessel 120 feet in length, in a strong tide-way. That wharf is a private one, it is true; but is there better public accommodation elsewhere ? The Wanganui also grounded on a spit or bank that is steadily on the increase, and the bridge bears many, a token of unexpected contact with vessels approaching it. Now what are the remedies ? Ask any person you see idling half-an-hour on the bridge, aud he will tell you it is in the wrong place. He will also point out how abvious it is that a landing quay along the edge of deep water should be made, and that a guidewall, to concentrate the current on the mouth of the bar, will not only be efficient for creating depth, but, from the short distance required, the necessary row of piles, with their sheathing, could be obtained at a very trifling cost —very little over £2,000, we are led to believe. There is hardly a man in the place who will dispute the above, unless somebody else whom he is at variance with endorses it first —and then look out, for the fat will be in the fire with a vengeance, and nothing done.