MR. ROBERT GILLIES ON THE HARBOR, QUESTION.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 234, 29 August 1873, Page 3

MR. ROBERT GILLIES ON THE HARBOR, QUESTION.

Mr. Robert G-illies seconded the resolution. He would not come on to that platform to advocate one line as against another without having "the opinions of surveyors and engineers ' before,/'.him. There was a far deeper question involved. It was. whether Dunedin should be..made the central port,, not only for Otago, but for the whole of the Middle Island, or was Port Chalmers to occupy that position? According to a report of the late Mr. Balfour, prepared in the year 1865, for the sum of £IOO,OOO, a channel 21ft. deep and *lsoft. wide could be dredged to Dunedin, and, according to the Railway Engineer's estimate, a railway to Port Chalmers could be constructed for £142,000. They were aware that £170,000 had been paid for the Port Chalmers line, and. the total amount about to be paid. The late Mr. Balfour, Marine Engineer, to whom they owed a

great debt of gratitude, showed that, for a S'jim of £IOO,OOO, they- could bring every ship to their wharves that came into, the Port. It was time for them to say, "We shall not have large reclamations for the purpose oi fighting against nature —to make a site, for a city where no site exists at : present." It was time for them to say, " We will make Dunedin the central port' of New Zealand." , Well; he knew he was unused addressing, a public meeting ' Mr. Balfour said'that in about sixteen." months a channel' 16ft". 1 deep" at' high water, with a .minimum width of 150 ft. could be dredged to Dunedin; while with the same plant, a channel 2 lft. deep,.at high water, could be obtained in. four years, or with double plant, in less than two 3>-ears' work. He showed that the facilities for the construction of cheap wharfage were much greater at Dunedin than at Port Chalmers, and referred to the almost,-if not quite, complete' immunity of timber piles at Dunedin from the destructive action -of -the marine worm, which goes on with very great rapidity at Port Chalmers. If they did not at once come to the determination to have their ships brought to Dunedin, the result would be that Dunedin would lose its trade. They found that, what with shipping facilities, .the assistance of the Loan and Mercantile Agency and other things, the Canterbury people were making great strides to secure the trade of New Zealand. They.had.been all asleep, and i they did not wake up and get the Moeraki Railway into Dunedin as soon as possible, they would find that the whole trade of the seaboard, from Waikouaiti northwards, would go to Christchurch, and | the Port of Lyttleton would be the cen- ■ tral depot for the Middle Island. There I was another important question connected with this matter of dredging. The sanitary condition of Dunedin was a very serious matter. In another report, Mr. Balfour advocated the dredging of a channel, on the ground that the sanitary condition of. Dunedin required it.- It was necessary to the health of the city, and it would enable them to bring their vessels and steamers up to the wharves, and yet they, idly neglected it. This question had a very important bearing upon the resolution before them, add if they allowed the railway to be inade to Port Chalmers instead of Dunedin, they would commit a great mistake, as the ultimate depot would be at Port Chalmers.—(Applause.) —'Star.'/