HARBOUR BOARD ELECTION.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17120, 15 April 1921, Page 8

HARBOUR BOARD ELECTION.

MR T. H. HABKER'S CANDIDATURE. Mr T. H. Hnrker addressed a vol'attended mcetirfg in the North BeaoH Surf Club's Pavilion last night. Ho stressed the advantages of a harbour with a channel entrance in the estuary, and maintained that after a journey around tlto world, during which he observed large' works in America, England, and the Continent, he hud some notion of what this district might accomplish if managed by energetic «»d Progressive men with the courage of their convictions. He explained that the plai.s of Mr Cyrus Williams for a harbour ol 176 acres would provide ov«»r WOO acres of reclaimed land and \vould cost £1.053.684, and that Mr, Samuel Jickell's scheme, with a basin ot ao acres, would provide 800 acres of reclaimed land and cost £7l §,OOO. Mr Marker said that as the Government received over £200.000 revenue from the railway between Lyttelton end Christchurdh, there was no chance of them ever permitting an opposition tunnel road scheme to take this revenue from them by giving access to the wharvas. The candidate went into the figures of the Harbour Board, and maintained that there was enough surplus revenueto provide interest on one million pounds; the saving to the community would pay interest on another mulio:i! pounds; and the reclaimed land would be worth another million, so that altogether there would be interest provided on over 3J "millions, wlhereas only a little over a million would be required to construct the, new port. Mr Harker said that Lyttelton would benefit by the matting of an additional port on this side of the hill, because the Government would have to go on with th* duplication and electrification of the tunnel'. With better facilities, Lyttelton would become a seaside suburb, and! the centre of a more prosperous and larger community. At the conclusion of the address, a vote of thanks and confidence, proposed by Mr Bellamy and seconded by Mr Leaver, was carried unanimously.'