LAND RECLAMATION AT LYTTELTON.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14889, 31 January 1914, Page 3

LAND RECLAMATION AT LYTTELTON.

LETTER BY MR JOSHUA LITTLE. _lr Joshua Little, a member of the Lyttelton Harbour Board, in a letter to the president of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, urges the discontinuance of land-reclamation at Lyttelton. He points out that at tho end oT 1913 thero had been constructed 1505 ft of the mole, leaving a balance of 1895 ft. Tho rate of construction in 1912 1913 had been 300 ft per annum, m that it would tako over six years to finish it. Tho cost was, approximately, £6000 per annum, and * the cost of finishing the mole would therefor, l>o over £30,000, without interest. This land could only be of valuo for three purposes: (a) residential sites, (b) sitea for manufactories, and (c) sites for warehouses. The prevailing north-cast winds would spoil tho land for tho first purpose, and the time and expenso incurred in the employees coming from and returning to their homes would bo fatal to obtaining cheap labour, thus .rendering it.unsuitable for manufactories while the electrification of tho Ohnstohureh-Lyttelton lino would so revolutionise matters that stores at W__*"ft W0 ,' 1 4 ?f as * to bo necessary. With the electrified service, trucks would no longer haro to wat for a long tram to bo built, but would be ETSfn desi T tohe _. h ? each Passenf _„„£ I _ ll . aa . nothn * coul <l Prevent a loaded truck making tho journey tinder ten minutes. Lvtteltoi. ou.d thus become merely the end of tie jetty whore the «h. m unload, tho town lon e dS her ir_ i r here / h0 *° ods ««» ™ 2__!i, ,00 °:• would bo-Bared; and this would amount to a remission of Anrf ior tne next sis years. Mr Littlo concludes by urginz the Chamber of Commerce to cans" nn investjgation to Lo mado as to tlie dosirability of continuing tho reclamation of tho land in question.