NO CANAL FOR CHRISTCHURCH.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1346, 25 January 1912, Page 4

NO CANAL FOR CHRISTCHURCH .

•» ENGINEERS CONDEMN SCHEME. (By TeleEi'iuili-Press Association.) Chrislchurch, January H. The report of the commission set np lo make a final investigation of the canal project was tabled at a meeting of the Mainour •13nard to-day. It is a voluminous document of 45 pages, and represents the unanimous finding of Mr. Mitchelson, Mr. W. Ferguson, and Mr. J. E. Watson on the whole question of harhour and shipping facilities for Canterbury. Summed up, the report is a complete condemnation of tho canal scheme, and the alternative, recommended is an extensive sthenic of railway and harbour improvement at Lyttelton, with additional yard and shed accommodation in Ghristchurcli. The commission gives tho reasons for its finding briefly in the following statement at the close of the report:— "We assure you that. ve have been impressed with the serious responsibility inseparable from the duty cast upon us by your board. Wo havo earnestly endeavoured to take an impartial view of every aspect of the problem placed before us. We have carefully investigated and weighed all the evidence tendered, and the sources of information available to us, and we have eome to the deliberate conclusion that it is not. in the interests of the city and district that any artificial harbour should he constructed outside the port of Lyttelton. Wo .summarise the principal •_ reasons that have led us to this conclusion as follows: — "(a) The grave uncertainty as disclosed by the evidence as to whether an artificial harbour with entrance at Sumner would prove to be a first-class port, owing to tho doubts expressed as to the important question of ready accessibility for large vessels in any but moderate or calm weather. "(b) The heavy financial burden that would be imposed on the community by the largo expenditure involved in tho proposal. "(c) The serious loss to tho community and individual sections thereof through the inevitable depreciation of private and public property inseparable from any chanso in the location of the port. "(d) The certainty that no Government would consent in the public interest to fhe closing of I,yttelfo - i as a port. "(e) Owing to its geographical position, Christchurch cannot enjoy all.the advantages of it city situated in a natural deep water harbour, but in our opinion any attempt to escape from railway charges by the construction of an artificial harbour must result in the exchange of one impost for a still greater impost. "(f) Our conviction is that it is practicable at a comparatively small cost to so improve the facilities at Christchurch and Lyttelton as lo remove most, if not all, of tho disabilities now complained of as well as to make ample provision for the prospective growth of trade for the next fifty years."