A DRY DOCK, OR PATENT SLIP?

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 159, 10 July 1867, Page 2

A DRY DOCK, OR PATENT SLIP?

To tuy Editor oe'tpb Nelson Evening Mail. Sir —l read with surprise in the Mail yesterday evening that Mr. Siramonds had a motion dv the paper, asking the Council to express an opinion in favor of a Dry Dock over a Patent Slip, jfor our harbor,

and I hastened to the Council to hear what he had to say in support of his proposition, but found on arrival that there had been a "count out." I should like very much to learn whence the nnember for Waimea South got the knowledge which would qualify him to give an opinion on so important a subject. In his own estimation, I know, his judgment is equal to that or any other undertaking; his genius being of that soaring kind that he would readily take charge of the Channel Fleet or construct a tunnel from Dover to Calais. But the members of the Council generally are more modest, aud will hardly like to decide an engineering problem about which the majority can really kuow little or nothing, and so usurp the functious of the Executive. Mr. Simmouds' attempt to dictate to the Government that a dry dock only shall be constructed in Nelson, might, if successful, lead to another postponement of the construction of any work whatever by which vessels could be repaired here. Is Mr. Simnionds, I would ask, in possession of certain data of the probable cost of constructing a dry dock ? I suspect that when such a work came to be constructed, we should find the calculations that have been made far below the actual sum. The cost of constructing a stone dock capable, at every tide, of giving ingress or egress to all vessels that can enter our harbour, has never yet beeu calculated, but only that of constructing a dock which would be closed against such steamers as the Otago or Tararua, except at springtides. Such a dock would practically be of little use. Small vessels can lie on the hard, or go on a cradle. If we are to bring trade to our port by giving facilities to vessels to repair here, these facilities must be perfect of their kind, and to construct a dock that a vessel drawing fourteen or fifteen feet of water can enter at all tides, will cost something nearer £60,000 than £25,000. The Council will scarcely be so rash as to support Mr Simmonds' motion. I am, &c, i Scrutator. Nelson, July 10.