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Evening Star, Issue 3503, 15 May 1874, Page 2

The rep»rt of the Chief Harbor Master shows that a very considerable amount of useful work has been done during the present year in the way of deepening certain channels and depositing the materials lifted in those parts of the harbor set aside for reclamation. In all 75,024 cubia yards were tbus lifted during tbe year ending March 31, 1874. The dredge New Era has cut out a basin sufficiently large for vessels to swing in at the Rattray street jetty, and a channel the entire length of the training wall, 100 feet wide, and six feet deep at low water ; also & channel of the same depth across to Jetty street jetty, and along the south side of the new coal shed. This work has dene away with the difficulty which formerly prevented vessels from getting to and from the jetties. It appears, however, that the demand for jetty'-accommodation has outstripped the increased supply. This shows, as Captain Thomson remarks, that “ wharf and jetty extension should go on simultaneously with dredging operations.” There is now every probability that something will «®on bo done in the way of initiating and carrying out a comprehensive and effective scheme for the improvement of the Upper Harbor. What has been hitherto done, though very useful in its way, has been done on no uniform plan, and consequently a very considerable! amount of labor and capital has been expended in vain. Many useful works have been commenced and completed, and the public energy has been on the whole employed in the right direction ; but we hope in a short time to be able to say that every bucketful of stuff lifted is being removed from some place where it ought not to be to one where it ought to be, and where it is likely to remain; that every effort put forth and every pound expended are being employed in promo ling a thoroughly well-considered scheme for making the harbor of Dnnedin worthy of the handsome town which is growing on its shores, and of the enormous commerce of which ere long it will be the seat. There is one part of Captain Thomson’s report which deserves serious attention. Ho recommends very earnestly the establishment of some sort of Sailors’ Home, and suggests that such an establishment might be brought into existence by the united effints of the Government and of the public Like many other similar things, a Sailors’ Home, when once fairly started, would be self-supporting, but a considerable outlay would be required to set it fajrly going. In the first place, an attractive-looking building would be almost a sine qua non. It is hardly to be expected that sailors just coming fronj a long and monotonous voyage will consent to take up their abodes in dull, unattractive quarters, whgn their ears are being assailed by these siren songs to whose influence they are generally only too ready to yield. As Captain Thomson says, “ wherever they go they are haunted by the most_ profligate of all sexes until they are penniless/’ In order to induce sailors, therefore, to use of a Home, it will be necessary that it be made as attractive as possible—comfortable bedrooms, good food, a suitable library, and plenty of rational amusements would do much to weaken the force of the debasing temptations to which sailors are so jjjueh exposed. A maritime town like Dunedin owes very much of its prosperity.to the class whose ’claims we are advocating, and it is only just that its inhabitants should endeavor to do something for them in return. At present the only return we as a community make them for the benefits they undoubtedly confer on us is to treat them with exceptional severity when they come before our police courts. We are not going too far when we say that we expect sailors to ,be saints, while every possible temptation to be sinners is thrown in their way; and that when the old Adam breaks out in them, we visit their transgressions with punishment altogether disproportioned to the pjfences they commit. It is really time that something should be done to ameliorate the .condition of sailors while they are on shore, if we can do pothjng to soften the hardshins from which they suffer at sea. We therefore invito the, serious 'attention of the public, and of the Corernrpeat, to that part of Captain Thomson's report which refers to the necessity for establishing a Sailors' Bpme.