The Daily Telegraph. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3852, 21 November 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1883.

The decision arrived at by the Harbor Eoard yesterday afternoon, we havo very little hesitation'iu saying, will meet with the hearty approval of the Hiiwlte's Ji-.iy public. "It settles once and for all the question, that has been disputed for solong, whether the money spent on the existing harbor improvements has or has not been thrown away. In inviting Mr Goodall to Napier to design a harbor for tins port the Board has virtually confessed that the expenditure of the £70,000 loan has been a mistake. Every effort that has been made to improve upon Nature in that direction has been money thrown away. AA r e have not got a harbor worthy of the name, and at length the Board has recognised what has been patent to the public for years past. In the final rejection of Mr Culcheth's design the Board turns over a new leaf and makes a fresh departure. It was a bold course to take, but it was tho only ono to adopt if this port is ever to have a harbor. In rejecting the plans that met with tho approval of the London judges the Board risks the accusation of flying in tho face of the highest re-coo-nised engineering authorities in the world. It is a risk, however, that the Board can very well afford to run. It is certain that the people of Ilawkes Bay would never have consented to a loan for the execution of Mr Culcheth's design Whether the London judges were right or wrong, the people, when it comes to a question of borrowing money for which thoy are to be held responsible, are tho final tribunal, lhcir decision was most emphatically given as soon as it became- known that the award of men J.ad been made to what has been c»Uod *i extension of the Wcbci-Currtithcr.s-Coole-scheme A rate would bo cheerfully paid by pioperty

owners in both town and country to cover any balance that might bo needed for the payment of interest and sinking fund of ?i loan for a really useful work of permanent value, but not a penny would be forthcoming for any tinkering. In coming to this resolution the people showed that they were wiser than professional authorities. To tho layman it stood to reason that no good result could be obtained by any amount of expenditure in a small gut of water, where a silt bearing river ran in at one end, and a shallow bar was to be found at tbe other. The "profession," however, appeared to find in such raw unpromising material as much interest as a medical student would in some unwholesome corpse. The history of our port shows that, while it has been mado the subject of all kinds of experiments, the result iii each caso has been, if not an absolute failure, altogether disproportionate to the cost. From first to last there has been spent more than enough money to havo paid for a first-class harbor. The Board has now done what should have suggested itself years ago—invito tho boldest engineer in the colony to diagnose the case and to prescribe the remedy. Mr Goodall, at Timaru, has achieved a triumph in tho face of every opposition that could be brought to bear on him and his work by both nature and prejudice. So great was the opposition that he had to contend against from his fellow men that, at times, he felt almost inclined to give way to despair, and, leaving his work unfinished, to acknowledge it a failure. Even now, when the Timaru breakwater strikes the visitor to the other island as the noblest structure of its kind in New Zealand, thero are plenty of professional men who will solemnly prophesy future disaster. No one can deny that, as it stands now, tho breakwater is a magnificent sue--cess ; but it is comforting to those who opposed the scheme to believe that, at some future date, tho travelling shingle will ruin the harbor. How much of tbe opposition to Mr Goodall was due to tho influence of Lyttelton and Dunedin, neither of which places wanted a harbor mado midway between tbe two, cannot bo determined with any degree of certainty, but at Napier wo shall have nothing of that sort to contend with. A. harbor on this coast is moro than a local necessity, and its construction should have been a colonial work. There is no chance, however, of Parliament giving us any further assistance than permission to do the work for ourselves, and the district only needs to be true to itself to secure that permission.