THE MEANS TO PROGRESS.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16414, 7 January 1919, Page 4

THE MEANS TO PROGRESS.

$ TO THE EDITOF. OF "THE PRIS3." Sir.—lt' your readers have carefully waded through his i; small talk" they have found that the only reason Mr ! Matsou has advanced for a canal 13 to save "doublo handling." 1 pointed out that a tunnel road at the merest, fraction of tiic cost would save tnis Uoublo handling and the cartage woula only be sligaiiy further tlian lieat.iicoto canal. nis amusing to notice bow Jir Afatsou has abauaoned point alter point and canal alter canal as I their absurdities have been pointed out to him. Heathcote, Linwood station, . and Bromley have beon successively found wanting and abandoned, and your correspondent is at present advocating Buckley's corner. Let us follow him to Buckley's corner. SVell, Buckley's canal—oh, fatal name!—will cost, including cost of laud, of new railway construction, or buildings removed, otc., about £4. per head or overy man, woman, tind child in the Dominion. A great deal to pay for the privilege of carting our goods 2i miles, and ic will have the same disabilities as to navigation as tiie other canals. How does this compwo with a tunnel? Recent actual experience shows that a railway tunnel 15-Jffc by Isit costs about £115,000 per mile. In our advantageous position it would be less, so we know that a railway tunnel to Lyttelton would cost less than £150,000. Thus we could buiid 10 railway tunnels for the cost of ono Heathcote canal four miles away, or 25 tunnels lor the cost of due Buckley's canal 21 miles away. A large road tunnel capable of taking all conceivable traffic would cost about £250,000 as near as we can judge from recent tunnel oxporienco. If the cartage iigure given for Bromley canal as one-third of the present railage from Lyttelton bo correct, the cost through a tunnel road would be roughly onehalf tho present charge. Wo can obtain this result -without fighting Dominion opposition, without the expenditure of much money, without the continual dredging antl- upkeep of a fool ditch, without, increase in wliartago and insurance charges, without delays due to. bad weather, without tlia occasional scandal of a wreck at the entrance, without sinking much valuable land nnder water, without the demolition of a large number of houses, and without the abominable injustice of financially drowning Canterbury and Lvttelton, the authors of our being, in" a ditch of our own digging. If a tunnel road is niore needed than another railway tunnel by all means strive for the tunnel road. We can have either, or in time both, if wo pull together. There arc no engineering dilhcidties, and in less than two years the machinery and labour from Otira will he available. For our credit's sake let us combine on some sane scheme which will have the help of Canterbury and the sympathy of the Dominion, and not waste our time for tho next contury in wild and ridiculous dreams. Merely to get the Bill through tho Commons cost the promoters of tho Manchester Ship Ciwial £400,000, and thev were backed by the pressure of a great city's population. What chance would Christchurch, already with a good natural harbour and • oppose*! 'by the whole Dominion, have of being alio*cd lo boom and bust by the expenditure ol" some threo million odd? Great speculators, investors, and business men when faced with some proposition of ] which they have no knowledge, pay ■ for the best expert advice, and abide by it. Wo got this advice; it condemned tho canal in well-measured ; and decided terms, and recommended ; the improvemeut of our natural liarbour. Canterbury lias a first-class | harbour, but the access to it requires ' improvement, as we all know. If we ] carry out this improvement tho whole : of Canterbury will benefit, Christchurch will benefit, and Lyttelton will ! benefit. Of course some of your readers think •< that improved communication with our , harbour will build up Lyttelton at our j ©xpenso. A little thought -will dis- ] solve this view; Christchurch is now j too solid on its hub to have its ceatro changed .and Lyttelton will never be ] a favourito place of residence. Improved communication will assuredly make Lyttelton a suburb, and Christchurch .will benefit as sho does from St. Albans, Sydenham, or any otner suburb. No matter what part of Christchurch our interests may be, we shall all benefit by the improvement, and those canalitcs whoso interests may be in Linwood. Woolston, or other part which tho building of a canal would boom should recognise that there is much meat on the Lyttelton bone and that the one they seo in the 1 waters of the estuary is but a shadow 1 and a muddy one at that.—Yours, etc. t THIN WEDGE. t