REUNION AND RETRENCHMENT.

Southland Times, Issue 1336, 18 November 1870, Page 3

REUNION AND RETRENCHMENT.

(to thb bditob of thb times.) Sib,— AmoDgat the constituencies of the late Province of Southland, none were more ardent in supporting the cause of reunion than that of Campbelltown, it having, as will be remembered, returned two influential reunion members to the Council. The Government of the united province (out of gratitude, I Buppose, for such services) are about to reward us by dispensing with what they call our " expensive luxuries," viz., the policeman and the signal station. With respect to the first, you have already dealt so ably with it in your leading columns, that I will only add that the idta of a shipping port being without a resident constable is so absurd that I do not believe it ever emanated from Commissioner Weldon. The importance of the signal station, both from a colonial and provincial point of view, is so great that the suggestion to discontinue it for the sake of saving its paltry costjT^xxmJd only proceed from a person utterly^ ignoK&nr-~~of^ its value. In connection with the pilot aerrice, it has frequently been the means of saving property, and probably life also ; by its aid vessels Uave been guided to safety when the pilot boat could not venture out. The Harbor Master could testify that the Phineas Pendleton, loaded with railway plant, would n»ver have reached her anchorage safely had she not been piloted from the station. There is not a merchant in Dunedin, Lyttelton, or Christchuroh, in any way connected with the shipping trade, who has not at some time or other been benefited by the Bluff signals, if it was only to the extent of apprising them of vessels in whtdh they might be interested passing through the straits, not to speak of its use in announcing the approach of steamers with mails hours before they reach port. It has been suggested that a station could be worked in connection with the lighthouse on Dog Island. Certainly it might, but it would be utterly useless to the pilot service or the public here. I think the proper course to take-— before removing the signaLman, and allowing the station, which only recently cost the province about a thousand pounds, to go to jdestraction—would be to request the General Government to contribute a sum towards its maintenance ; a oufficient reason for such a request being found in the feet that it i* of great service to the public in connection with the telegraph. If the genius who counsels the removal of this " expensive luxury" would only reside at the Bluff for a while, he would nave proof that the signal station here is much more useful to the public than that at Port Chalmew. I8m,&o., Vhuias.