"DAILY TIMES" V. OAMARU HARBOR.

North Otago Times, Volume III, Issue 46, 5 January 1865, Page 3

"DAILY TIMES" V. OAMARU HARBOR.

(To the Editor of the Oamabu Times.) SIR, —I was glad to observe the remarks in your last issue oil the continual attempts of the " Daily Times " to defame the port of Oamaru, and especially with regard to the paragraph in the "Timss" of the 26th ult. Were it not that these insinuations are calculated to do considerable damage, I would not have troubled you on the subject, but left them to well-merited scorn and contempt. But as "silence implies consent," I consider it the duty of all residents of the district to contradict the charges of the paltry scribbler of the " Times," Let Oamaru once get the name of being an unsafe port, and the mischief will be too late to remedy. Shipmasters will shun it, and underwriters demand extra premiums. "L'etat, c'est moi," said Louis XIV.; and following this royal precedent, Dunedin, through the '* Daily Times" appears to constitute itself the whole Province of Ofcago —in other words, its creed is "There is but one city, and Juliu3 "Vogel is its prophet!" Nothing beyond the precincts of that favored town is worth consideration ; and any district tbat attempts to do aught to develop its resources, must be put down. Oamaru has dared thus to infringe on the " vested rights" of Dunedin to a monopoly of the shipping trade, and endeavored to set up for itself as a place whence we may export our own produce direct to Europe, and import from thence what we may require; and lo! what an outcry. Dunedin is enraged at our presumption in-attempting to get on without her assistance; and still more, I expect, at the certainty of the loss that must accrue to her from this diversion of a large proportion of the staple exports from the hand* of her merchants, and of so many ihipa

from her Port. So the thunder of the " Times "is launched at our devoted heads; and insinuation—that convenient weapon of a malignant coward—is at once seized upon. "It is eumobed," says the "Times," " that the Star of Tasmania has been wrecked at Oamaru." If this is not adopting the principle of Pope's " Atticus," with a vengeance!—

" Damn with faint praise—assent with sullen leer, And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer j Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike — Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike!"

But what is the cause of this uproar ? Why, at Oamaru a portion of the Government moorings hus given way. Experienced nautical men affirm that if they be laid down in the same botchy manner as they were last, the same thing will occur; but that there is no danger to be apprehended if "proper means be taken to secure them. The futile and feeble attempt to cry up Moeraki in preference to this place is more evident than the reason which pi ompta such a step ; but when the trade of Moeraki has assumed proportions sufficient to attract ocean-going vessels to it, in all probability it will attain that degree of importance desired by the " Daily Times;" but we doubt veiy much if Oamaru then will not be as far ahead of Moeraki as it is now. In the meantime, to neglect the harbor under our very noses, in order to pamper one 30 miles away, is a piece of folly that the "Daily Times' 1 might be capable of, but which I believe no one here would think of doing —even to please the aforesaid journal. What would Dunedin think of shutting then? eyes to the (doubtless) superlative attractions of Port Chalmers, and making a railway to Port Molyneux, for the purpose of importing and exporting from thence ? Really, the one proposal is as absurd as the other. As to the " natural obstacles" dilated upon, lam unable to see them. We are sheltered even as well as Port Chalmers itself from the southerly gales so prevalent on this coast; and not one accident has hitherto occurred to the numerous vessels that have visited us. On the other hand we have read in the columns of the Ducedin papers from time to time accounts of damage and disaster happened in Port Chalmers—vessels run aground, or otherwise injured, and in addition, ships have never to JOLT into Oamaru, as more than one has to do in effecting an entrance into Port Chalmers, over an obstinate bar that laughs at their dredges. Poor Oamaru is certainly very much to be pitied. Through her ambitious project of exporting her own wool direct to Europe, what a multitude of enemies has arisen against her. Steamers that used to earn a. trifle by conveying the wool to Port Chalmers are no longer needed, and (to borrow the " Times" phraseology) " it is rumored" the skippers of the same have been strictly ordered to afford no relief to a ship if in distress at this port! Merchants and agents in Dunedin and the Port, who used to extract " pickings" from the passing of the wool through their hands, are indignant; and lastly, the " Daily Times," thinking there was a chance to publish a libel at a minimum risk, like the jackass in .ffisop's fable of the Dying Lion, flings up its heels in our faces ! To conclude the simile, we may quote, with the dying king—" All could I have endured but this _; the insults of so contemptible a thing are indeed humiliating!" Yours, &c, Oamaru. December 30th, 1864.