PROPOSED SHIP CANAL AT AUCKLAND.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1027, 27 April 1883, Page 2

PROPOSED SHIP CANAL AT AUCKLAND.

The Aucklanders have been smitten with the canal fever. A correspondent writes to the Herald urging the opening of a waterway from the Manakau to the Waitemata, and the paper takes up the question and discusses it seriously. “ Were a canal opened,’’ it says,either at the Whau or at the Tamaki, vessels from Waitara and other places along the West Coast could sail right through to Auckland wharf ; in fact, such a canal would tend to centre the whole trade of the West Coast, both of the North and South Islands, in Auckland, as Auckland would then be more easily reached than any of the other

large centres of population. One of the first steps to take to carry out this necessary work would be to extend the authority of the Auckland Harbour Board to the Manakau. At present the Manakau Harbour is practically neglected, and its endowments are unutilised. This state of things is likely to remain for a long time to come, unless the Auckland Harbour Board makes itself felt in the Manakau. The Manakau is properly the western port of Auckland, and there should be navigable water between the two divisions of the one natural harbour. The expense of cutting a canal at the Tamaki, and dredging out the channel to adapt it for small steamers, will be trifling. That at the Whan would be more costly, and the reef that runs out from the old rifle range at Point Chevalier would offer other dangers, which have to be considered. But though a small expenditure would be required to connect the two harbours for small-sized trading vessels and steamers, a considerable sum would be needed to make the channel suitable for the steamers which will soon plough their way through the Panama Canal. To aid the Harbour Board to accomplish the larger work, no doubt liberal endowments on our western harbour could be obtained from the Government, which in a few years would become sources of considerable revenue. There is a reserve of two chains wide for canal purposes both at the Whau and Tamaki Portages. A Committee of the Harbour Board should 1 e appointed to collect the necessary inormation relating to the Manukau Harbour endowments, canal reserves, nature of the soil to be removed, &c., and report to an early meeting of the Board. The more vigorously they set to work to provide ample facilities for our shipping trade, the more rapidly will the general trade of Auckland be developed.”