Page 2 Advertisements Column 2

Lyttelton Times, Volume IV, Issue 187, 9 August 1854, Page 2

14. The only plan by which the advantage of a deep water jetty can be secured, without injustice to those who have invested their money in land and improvements at Lyttelton, appears to me to be the following, viz. Ist, To open a road communication with the plains, as early as possible by com* ' pleting the Sunnier road on the lowest level proposed by the late Road Commission. 2nd. To effect a direct communication with the shipping by building a. jetty at Gollan'g Bay for the accommodation of large vessels, arid connecting it by a railway tunnel with the Sumner road On the north side of the tunnel, the trucks to be drawn " up by horses from the landing place in the Bay, to a goods depot on the Sumner road whichwould afford a ready communication with either Lyttelton, or Qhristchurch. 3rd. When the increasing trade of the settlement shall justify such an expenditure to complete the railway from this goods depot to Christchurch and to work the trains by locomotive power. 1-5, The execution of these works -might be distributed over a considerable period of time, say ten yeaTs, which would allow the change in the direction of the traffic, to be effected so gradually as greatly to lessen the injury to private interests, which must result from the removal of the shipping from Lyttelton to Gollan's Bay, whilst it is more than possible that the traffic with the Bays of the Peninsula would, during the interval, have increased so much as to compensate to a great degree for the loss of the European trade. Assuming the cost of opening the navigation, completing the Sumner road, and establishing a locomotive line between Gollan's] Bay and "Christchurch to be Two hundred thousand pounds ;* the annual average expenditure during the ten years required for the establishment of a complete and thoroughly efficient communication between the Port and the Plains would not exceed twenty thousand pounds (£20,000.) 17. In the present state of the settlement however it appears to me that it would be undesirable to commence any of the above mentioned works until a fresh immigration from England has introduced a sufficient number of workmen to allow-of their being carried on without absorbing the supply of labour required by the settlers themselves ; and this amounts to a virtual postponement of the commencement of any extensive works for a period of eighteen months or two years from the present time. In tbe mean while, I think the traffic may be sufficiently provided for by forming a Bullock road over the Port hills to Heathcote ferry, not a trotting road with a gradient of-I in 16, but simply a wide track with gradients of from 1 in 5 to 1 in 7, up which a team of bullocks would draw with comparative ease a dray loaded with from a ton to a ton and a half of goods. 18. A careful examination of the present Bridle Path, leads me to the opinion that it is fpossible to improve it so as to admit of the passage of drays, but that the alterations requisite to effect this, would be very costly, and would involve a serious interference with private property. 19. For'these reasons I think it would be better to take an entirely new and much better route which can be made practicable at a less cost and which interferes but little with private property. 20. The line I would beg to recommend would follow the present road through the College land over the spur to the west of * Sumner Bar £5,000; Sumner-road, £30,000; Bailway, £165,000. Total, £200,000.