HARBOR RIVAL TO DUNEDIN.

Patea Mail, 12 July 1882, Page 4

HARBOR RIVAL TO DUNEDIN.

The imminent stoppage of Harbour Works at Dunedin, and the prospects of limited funds, are driving its citizens unwillingly to the conclusion that their harbor will never be a port of call for ocean going steamers. In this dilemma many of them are looking out for some other harbor near at hand, and Waikouaiti Bay has been mentioned more than once as a suitable place. “ Old Colonist,” in a sensible letter to the Star, on Dunedin Harbor works, concludes by discussing the advantages presented by Waikouaiti. He says:—“ It has been stated that for a considerable distance inside the heads, and OAcra large portion of the bay, there is a depth of 45ft at low water. My knowledge of the place is confined to that afforded by a very few visits, but if the foregoing statements be correct, and if, as has been asserted, breakwaters could be run out at a comparatively trifling cost we (I write we because Dunedin would have the exclusive advantage)would have, it is affirmed, by far the the best port of call on the east coast and a satety harbor as well. Uuder - present circumstances the matter is of so muchimportancethatno time should be lost in procuring a survey and report to determine the matter.” Another gentleman, writing on the subject, speaks even more by the card :—At Waikouaiti the Great Eastern could lie close to the shore with perfect safety in any weather, provided that a comparitively small sum were expended in forming a breakwater, or rather in adding to a natural breakwater already made by nature, in the shape of a reef extending a long way out from Cornish Mount (Matanaka). This again is protected to the north-east by an outer reef, so that very heavy seas would lose their force ere they reached the inner reef. I am not engineer enough to state the cost, but I am sure that it would be a very small fraction of that of the Oamaru breakwater. The material, in the shape of

sand, gravel, &c., is all close free of cost. Ships could unload there, and steamers couM land cargo in Dunedin in three hours easily, and vice versa." . If Waikouaiti really does possess all these attributes, it seems a great pity that men were ever found foolish enough to sink hundreds of thousands in the mud of Otago harbor, when a portion only of the money would have provided all that was wanted. Should the new project be taken up with any amount of enthusiasm, we may expect soon to see a new city rising on the dreary flats around the mouth of the Waikouaiti river. Here is a chance for speculators to make a land grab.—Canterbury Times.