OUR HARBOR.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2111, 20 June 1907, Page 4

OUR HARBOR.

A NEW PROPOSAL. “Kaiti” writes as follows on harbor matters: “If we are to have a suitable harbor for ocean-going steamers, I would like to know why we want to go about two miles along the coast and have to build an expensive bridge to get there, when the same object can be obtained by continuing the present breakwater in a S.W. direction, and then westerly for a total distance of half a mile,: which would then enclose a space of twice the size of the proposed outer .harbor, with , a depth -of 30ft at low water at the entrance? Very few of our "coastal steamers draw over 22ft, and,many of them less than ■that. Even in the very roughest weather these vessels could come in and discharge their passengers and cargo in comparativelv smooth water. Should they not be able to tie up to the wharves? These are the class of boats we want to consider more than the mutton boats. A continuation of the_j)resent nroyne would serve as wharves at which cargo would be landed and loaded, and passengers go right aboard' without the risk of getting their legs broken, as is sometimes the case now. Tt would bo an immense advantage to the town to have the’harbor at its back door, thus saving the charge of 4s per ton for haulage if put where proposed. If successful breakwaters .have Ijeen built at Napier, Timaru’, and Oamaru, where they get heavier seas than we. do here, why cannot wo do it? This is a matter that is worth considering before Mr. Marchant’s scheme is carried.”