THE SEA ENCROACHMENTS AT WESTPORT.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1201, 4 June 1872, Page 2

THE SEA ENCROACHMENTS AT WESTPORT.

.. ..; [TIMES.] ■<■■.- The sudden demand for building sites has caused section-holders iv>'. esse and wi jjosse, to be on the alert, and the current topics of the week have been neither "weather" nor "times," so much as "corner pegs", and "jumpers." Piilmerston street, and the streets and sections abutting thereon, have been eagerly scanned by seekers after eligible sites, and a goodly crop of jumping cases are likely to engage the attention of the Warden. . The important recommendations now made by Mr Dobson, $s detailed in our Nelson telegrams, will doubtless give a more decided impetus to the taking up of sections. We have some authority for stating that the, building sections will be probably offered for sale as freeholds, and that arrangements are also pending for the equitable granting of areas, under busU ness licenses, to parties suffering loss of. present, holding by the encroachmt,nt of the sei. The Djstrict Engineer and Harbor Master have both recommended that a wharf should be built between Wakefield and Fonblanqiie streets, as being the only site giving any promise of permanancy, and also bein| contiguous to what must of necessity be the site of the permanent township.- ' •:■-

A later date says : — The "sad . sea waves " are still by slow, but sure degrees fulfilling the work of destruction. On. the west side of Gladstone street a gap now exists, where familiar building 3so lately stood ; suggestive of most unpleasant forebodings as to the impending fate of adjoining properties. Following the sudden disappearance of the Empire, every building inthe corner block has been pulled do.vn, the houses on the south side of Freeman, street carted away in fragmen tarycondition, and the sea at highwater now washes with, steaencroachment, a carved line of broken ground, extending from what remains of the receni site of the Bank of New South Wales . melting house to .Munson's cottage, at, the rear of M'Farlane's 'Hotel. The proprietor 'of that hotelmay now, in auctioneer's phrase, boast of an eligible corner section, commanding an uninterrupted view of the river and port of entrance, arid offering facilities for business only limited 'by the contingencies of sudden interruption by saltwater! The conclusion arrived at by those who, from long residence ab Westp Dr t, should be enabled to form a competent opinion, is that at no distant date the removal of all the buildings on the west side of Gladstone street; will be compulsory. . ■•.:'■ . ■ ' -,;