The Globe. SATURDAY, JULY 14, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 953, 14 July 1877, Page 2

The Globe. SATURDAY, JULY 14, 1877.

The propositions made for the improvement of Lyttelton Harbour will, we are sure, be received with satisfaction. Lor some years past, whether rightly or wrongly, the harbour of Lyttelton has had a bad name. Consequently freights have been higher, and the rates of insurance greater than as regards other ports in the colony. The Harbour Board early recognised the importance of taking steps for the removal of this disparity by the construction of works which should make Lyttelton equal in security and facilities for discharge and loading to any port in the colony. With this view a committee was appointed to consider the best means of effecting what was required. . At the last regular meeting of the Board its report was brought up containing recommendations for works which could be put in hand at once. But a difficulty occurs in the shape of unavoidable delay. At an early stage of the existence of the Harbour Board a flaw was discovered in its legal status inasmuch as the various wharves had not been conveyed. Hence they lapsed to the Queen, and could only be re-vested in the Board by an Act of the Legislature. The Board therefore, very wisely, while agreeing altogether in what was proposed by the committee, decided that it would he better not to commence the works until this question had been definitely settled. There can he no doubt as to the wisdom of this course. To do otherwise would only lead to a complication of matters. The delay is to be regretted, because the works are so urgently pressing. In view of this, and also the fact that our trade is increasing greatly almost every day, we hope no unnecessary time will be lost in getting the Bill amended, so that the Board can get to work. Several members of the Assembly are also members of the Harbour Board, and we hope they will move the Giovernment to make this one of the first acts of the session. The harbour of Lyttelton is the one outlet for the vast quantities of produce, and the one point of supply of merchandise, for a large and increasing population. To allow, therefore, any means undone which will offer improved facilities for the transmission of our produce, and the easy access to our harbours of large vessels is simply to cripple, to a serious extent, onr trade. It becomes, therefore, the duty of our representatives to see that the error by >yliich this delay is caused should be rectified at the earliest possible moment. And this resposibility rests, not alone on those gentlemen who -happen to he members of the; Harbour Board as well as of the Legislature, but on those representing every part of the provincial district,

This is not a mere local question, in which none of the members except the actual representative of the district in which the want arises is expected to to take much interest; it is one vitally affecting the prosperity of all. Hence, as we have said, it is to be hoped that pressure will be brought to bear upon the Grovernment, to ensure that this matter will not be lost sight of, in the turmoil of party strife, but that the' Board will be able, at no distant date, to carry practically into effect the much-needed improvements.