Chapter V.—How Are we to get rid of our Produce?

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 315, 7 November 1855, Page 4

Chapter V.—How Are we to get rid of our Produce?

" I have the honor to forward a map of the town of Sumner,situated on the seashore at the mouth of the Avon. It will be distant from Lytteltou four miles and from Christchurch six and-a-half, and will be well situated as a depot for the interior."—Despatch from Captain Thomas to the Secretary of the JN'ew Zealand Company, January 26 ISSO. ' ' Having now prepared the way for a clear understanding of the subject, by examining each proposed mode of transit, and testing what it will, and what it will not, do for us, let us turn to the plain practical question, how are we to get rid of our produce ? The Sumner road cannot, under any circumstances, be finished under 12 months, and, therefore, all the exports from the Christchurch district must go over the Bar during that period. The first thing to be done, therefore, is to make the passage certain, by putting a steamer on the berth to tow vessels in and out cf the river whenthey would otherwise be wind bound or becalmed. When tins is done, half-a-dozen boats like th« '■ Canterbury," which although a vessel of 37 ton?, comes up to Christchurch Quay with as much ease as the 10-ton boats that have hitherto carried on the trade, making trips weekly instead of monthly, as at present, would do all the work for the next year to come. The traffic will, however, in all probability he expedited still further by the small colonial traders coming inlo the river for pi uduce instead of waiting until it is brought r.jtind into Port ; and vessels drawing nine fef-t water may lie inside the Shag^Roek within a few yards of the Sumner road as .safely as in a dock basin. Whan the Sunnier lload is finished to

this point, farmers will be able to «art their produce to the ship's side with their own teams ; meanwhile it is very easy to take goods in barges either by the Heathcote from Christchurch Quay, or eventually with some little improvement of the river from the market-place itself by the Avon. If these methods are not thought sufficiently expeditious, it is no very costly matter to lay a light railway from the mar-ket-place at Christchurch to a wharf a little above the Shag Rock at Suinher, which' would reduce the time and cost of putting produce on ship board to a minimum, and so far as the small colonial traders are concerned, this seems to be the ultimate solution of the problem, although the construction of the railway may be delayed fora time by the difficulty of raising the required capital. Nothing would be gained by carting produce four miles farther into Lyttelton, where it would have to be put into lighters, ifatSumher.it can be put at once from a wharf into the ship's hold. There remains, however, to consider the most important branch of the question with which we began this chapter, viz., how are we to load those vessels which are too large to enter the river, or to come alongside a wharf at Lyttelton ? In other words, where is the lighterage to commence, at Sumner or at Lyttelton ? Now let us suppose a railway laid down from Christchurch to a steamboat wharf at Sumner, and a steamer plying daily between Sumner and the shipping in the harbour. Would not this be as perfect a mode of communication as could well be devised ? Even supposing the cost of land carriage from Sumner over the Port hills into Lyttelton to be reduced so low as not in any material way to affect the question ; would the puntage from Lyttelton jetty be any quicker, any cheaper, or attended with, less risk of loss and damage than the lighterage by steamer, whether the steamer carries cargo or plies as a tug-boat ? We leave those interested in the subject to answer these questions for themselves. In the meanwhile we hear the cry already raised on the Plains—Of what use is the Snmuer road ? why finish so useless a work ? Why finish the Sumner Road ? Because where the harbour is, where the Customhouse, the Bank and the Post-office are placed, to that spot of all others, it is important that we should have the freest and most perfect meens of access. Whether it is the channel by which the export trade reaches the shipping is of little moment in the question ; nay, the establishment of Sumner as a place of shipment would only increase the want of speedy communication by land between that place and the Port town. It rs not now the question whether the establishment of a port town at Lyttelton was a judicious step, or the abandonment of the town of Sumner a mistake. We have to deal not with the past, but with the present and the future. Finish the road by all means as fast as it can be done without crippling the resources of the Province. Let the road be finished, and let it be clearly seen what it will, and what it will not, accomplish ; and commercial enterprize will soon find out whether there be better channels for the traffic. There is no need for any Government interference or assistance, except in those matters which Government alone can perform. Commercial enterprise will, so soon as the trade is sufficient, find steamers and schooners, wharves, barges, tramways, g.nd every thing else that is really wanted. If a railway from Christ church to Sumner will materially reduce the cost of shipping produce, the producers on the Plains will .soon raise the required capital; if it will pay to continue the line into Lyttelton, it will be. to the interest of the Lyttelton merchants to finish their half of the work.

Meanwhile, instead of squabbling about the conflicting interests of the Port town and the Capital, let us study a far more important matter, the interest of the farmer and the Btockovsner, by putting a steamer on the river, and completing the land communication with the Port by the Sumner road. By the time we have done this, the natural progress of events will have indicated beyond all possibility of mistake—How we are to get rid of our produce !