PORT SUMNER.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19140, 25 October 1927, Page 4

PORT SUMNER.

PROPOSED IN THE EARLY DAYS, BAR THE OBSTACLE. Iu preparation for the settlors who were to people Canterbury, Captain Thomas, the New Zealand Company's surveyor, laid out the two port towns. Lyttclton and Sumner. In the early years of the settlement, Sumner almost equalled Lyttclton, and at one time it was within the range of possibility that it might have been the port, and not Lyttclton. The bar. while not absolutely preventing navigation, proved a fatal hindrance though, until the Lytteltou tunnel was pierced and railway communication was established between City and port sixty years ago, its perils were risked by lighters, by schooners, and by steamers, iu order that goods for the infant settlement could be conveyed from Lyttclton to the wharves on the Heathcote river at Woolston, and later to the wharf at Ferrymead where they were trained to Christchurch. An Early Port and City Committee. So vital was the question of communication that in 1851, the year following the foundation of the Canterbury Settlement, the Society of Land Purchasers set up a committee, consisting of Messrs W. Guise Brittan, W. S. Gray, J. E. Fitzgerald, and E. Pollard, to enquire as to the best means of improving the communication between the Port and the Plains. This was the first Port and City Committee —the forerunner of the committee that iir these later days is grappling with the same problem, the solution of which the committee of the early days imagined it had found.

Harbour at Sumner. One of the proposals considered by the committee set up by the Society of Land Purchasers was the improvement of the navigation at the mouth of the river at Sunnier, so that vessels could at all times cross the bar in safety. Another proposal was to build a harbour and jetty at Sumner, to which small craft might resort, and to provide small steamers which could at all times cross the bar in safety, to ply between Lyttelton and the neighbourhood of Christehurch. This proposal has persisted down the years and even now has not been abandoned absoluteAs to the first proposal, it was assumed that if the spaces between the detached rocks were filled up, and the river mouth' thereby narrowed, the larger volume of water and increased flow would assist materially in preventing the formation of a bar by deepening the channel of the river, especially if the height of the sand bank on the north side could be raised. There were doubts, however, that the scheme might not be successful; that ships would then have to discharge in the open roadstead and that matters would not be much improved. Another objection was that the outlay on the harbour would be almost as great as that required to complete the Sumner road—and road communication was preferable to river.

Scrapping Xyttelton. The committee was influenced by another consideration—that in the event of direct navigation to the City be ing made feasible, the town of Lyttelton would be deserted, and the port be removed to Sumner, all the money, public and private, spent in Lyttelton up to that time, would be lost. The committee cautiously added: "We would not be understood to argue that present vested intesests ought to be maintained at the sacrifice of the permanent welfare of the settlement," adding, that should it be proved later that Sumner was the fitter place for the port, it would, no doubt, become so. So the committee rocommended the completion of the Lyttelton-Sumner-Christehurch road as the then most practical way out of the difficulty, and as the means that could be adopted immediately to meet the situation that was pressing.

River Shipping. It was 1857 before the road was opened, and even then it did not put the shipping via Sumner out of business. The stiff grade of the Zig-Zag made the transport of heavy enrgo impossible and in spite of the "treacherous nature of the bar those were busy times for the lighters, schooners, and* steamers, that carried goods from Lyttelton to the Ileathcotc wharves. It was only ten years after the opening of the road, when the tunnel was completed, and railway communication established, that the river shipping began to decline. Some of the Vessels. In 1852 the schooners Kaka (Captain Cane) and Flirt (Captain Day) started running from Lyttelton to the Heathcote wharf via the Sumner bar. They were followed by the Fanny and the Fairy put on by the Christchurch Conveyance Company. The state of the bar frequently detained vessels outside for several days, and in August, 1532, bad weather having lasted for several weeks, provisions in Christchurch and on the plains ran very short. On February Bth, 1860, the steamer Avon was launched at Lyttelton and made her first trip up the Avon on the last day of the same month; but by November 7th navigation was found impracticable. On September 27th, ISGC, the Maid of Avon started to ply for passengers.

making, general farming, and gardening. Once ox-pupils have got started at some occupation it is very rare- for them to apply to the school afterwards for assistance in the matter of getting employment. The pupils arc deaf and dumb when they enter the school, and they arc dumb because they are deaf. The problem is to teach them what language is and to instruct them how to communicate their thoughts. Lip-reading is the rudimentary stage of such instruction. At the present (October, 1927) there are 12*2 pupils being educated; this total includes 17 day pupils. Oral Method of Instruction. The system of instruction at the School for tho Deaf is purely oral, a system that is fast gaining ground in similar schools in Australia. Oral teaching consists of teaching the children to Up read, to speak orally, and to instruct them in the i.-ieaning (.f language. In addition, tho pup its receive a. sound general education on the lines of the public schools .with such variations necessary in the case of deaf children. Technical instruction imparled includes the teaching of woodwork, gardening, cooking, sewing ana laundry work The Sumner School for the Deaf is the only institution in Australia or New Zealand which teaches the purely oral method to all it? pupils. A maintenance fee of £1 U per week during tho school year is charged; less is accepted in cases where parents are not able to pay the full rate; in necessitous cases education and maintenance arc free. In the case of day pupils no fee is charged- for education. Tberoaro three terms at the school. A week's holiday is siren in May, a fortnight at the'end of August, 'and seven weeks in midsummer. In the summer holidays the pupils are escorted o their homes; for the other ten" holidays the parents make their own arrangements.

Special Classes. In Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin there are social classes in existence lor the purpose of providing for cases of children who are semi-deaf—-so deaf, or so hard of hearing, as not to' be edueahle in the ordinary primary schools of the Dominion—and also for ca»es of speech defects. The Dunedin class is closed at present, but 's to' bo reopened. The Auckland class is at dryers Park and is associated with one of the public schools. In Wellington the class is associated with the Thorndon School. Official classes for the adult deaf are run in connexion with the special classes at Auckland Wellington, and Dii'iedin. A class for the adult deaf is held in C'hristchureh. the director and two of his assistants condnctnio- it. The meets in the White Star room> in Oithcdra] souare on Fridav evenings. Tuition is lice.