The Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1878.

Temuka Leader, Volume I, Issue 78, 14 September 1878, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1878.

Referring again to the subject of a former leader it must strike every unprejudiced observer, that if Mr Macandrew’s scheme is to be carried out, for a line of railway from Oxford to Temuka, that the most natural outlet for the products of the country opened up would be at Milford. Let us once more briefly review the position. Everyone in the district who lias given any thought to the subject recognises the necessity of having a harbor for South Canterbury. The next question that arises is which of the two schemes now proposed is the most feasible. In the first place we would ask is there any probability of works at Timaru having any permanency ? There is no natural foundation and protected starting point as at Oamaru, and even granting the possibility of the formation of a mole, would there be sufficient protection for the shipping during the prevalence of such disastrous seas as were experienced the other Sunday at an expenditure much under a million of money ? Shipmasters will answer with a decided negative, and so will every Unbiassed observer. The next question that arises are the Timaru people sanguine about the success of these works ? Many of them are not but as long as they can get the country’s money expended on this Utopian scheme, they submit and console themselves with the sweet reflection that it brings grist to their own mills. If the people of Timaru have such child-like faith in the success of their harbour works, let them start, as hinted at in the ‘ Saturday Advertiser,’ a company to provide the necessary funds, as in the event of it turning out according to their fond anticipations, their fortunes will be made. It is most decide lly unreasonable to ask the country to provide more money lor an object, the successful issue of which is so problematical, We are sorry to see that our neighbours still persist in demanding an endowment of land. The settlers in the country districts had about made up their mines that the £IOO,OOO must be spent before the eyes of the Timaru people would be opened, but this determination to come into competition with the. promoters of Milford Harbour, for a Government grant, provokes us to say what we do not wish to say about the Timaru project, We were wondering what excuse the ‘ Herald’ would find for the late wrecks. Formerly the tackling of the .vessels were bad, the chains imperfect, the sails were rotten, or they were shorthanded ; this time it is the vessels that are rotten. We were, therefore, glad to have an honest, straightforward denial of this by the Court of Enquiry,

The short and the lons' 1 of it is, the ! people of Tinumi have nut a leg to , stand upon. When we read that one iof the witnesses at the late enquiry stated at half-a-mile from shore the depth of water is only four-ami-a-half fathoms, and another that at a mile it is only fivc-and-a-half fathoms, we thought what works will bo required to make a harbor, what a bold undertaking tor any people to grapple with ! With such evidence before us as that of Jersey and that of Wick Bay, when the sea drove a body of concrete weighing 1300 tons before it like, chaff before the wind, wc cannot help asking what engineer would take upon himself to say such a work will stand ; even if it did where is the protection, a runic of a mile long built right into the ocean will not give it. As stated in a former leader this proposal is neither more nor loss than a proposal for a Harbor of Refuge, and this in the meantime the country cannot afford. We are quite sure the Assembly will not grant this endowment, but it will most likely be a means of keeping the promoters of the Milford scheme from obtaining the sanction of the House to the proposed Government ■endowment for Milford, and if it does this it will satisfy those in Timaru who wish to see this scheme kept back. The ‘ Timaru Herald ’ may sneer at these remarks—let it sneer—it is only the £ Herald ’ —out of Timaru no paper has over yet supported a proposition for an expenditure of money on harbor works at Timaru, As regards the feasibility of the Milford scheme, there are many things to recommend it to the country winch do not present themselves in the Timaru project. In the first place a competent engineer has reported favourably on the practicability of a good entrance to the harbor, and also as to the depth of water, and the comparatively sma I outlay which would be required to construct thef required works. Vessels would ride as safely there as in Lyttelton harbor. There would be no danger of a sudden storm scattering their valuable freights like so much rubbish, nor the remotest chance of the valuable lives of their crews being endangered amongst mountainous breakers. We are satisfied that when Sir John Goode’s report is received, it will embody a strong rcconmendation to Government to construct a harbour at Milford, being the only locality suited by nature for such a purpose in South Canterbury.