HARBOUR ACCOMMODATION AT THE THAMES.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1831, 4 June 1874, Page 3

HARBOUR ACCOMMODATION AT THE THAMES.

A pub wo meeting was held at the Academy of Music last evening in pursuance of an advertisement by the Mayor, in response to the following advertisement :— " Sir,-We the undersigned residents of the Thames request that you will call a publicmeetiug of the inhabitants of the Thames goldfleld to consider the question :of providing better accommodation for shipping at this port." There was a large attendance of the most influential citizens on the Thames. The Mayor was called to the chair. , The Chairman having read the advertisement calling the meeting, said that the question they had met to consiler to night was a very important one. As they were well aware, it was not a question with them now .whether any better accommodation for the Thames shipping was ■ required. The storm of last

Sunday made that fact patent to all, and he need not enlarge upon the fact that they required better accoroin idation than they hitherto had. 'The so-called wharfs were perfectly inadequate to sustain such a strain as was brought to' bear upon them. Indeed, he did notthink it right to. call them wharfs, as none of them, except, the Goods Wharf, had ever beeni.a wharf ; they wero mere landing stages, patched up by Government to serve the purpose of wharfs. With a population of,.ten or twelve thousand people lie thoughtthat they had a perfect right to ask the Government to assist in making wharfs for the goldfield, The question to'coine before them that night would no doubt be, whioh was the best

place at which to make a wharf.andif they could only agree as to the best place for awharf, he had little doubt they would be successful in obtaining assistance from the Government. Hitherto they had been hindered by local opinions, and certain small jealousies between Grahamstown and Shortland. He trusted, now they had been erected into a borough, that feeling had passed away, that aliy jealous feelings would be set aside, and that they would agree in such a proposition as would meet with general approval. That meeting would be prac icilly useless if they could not agree, amongst themselves, for if they did not do si the Government would Buve a fair excuse for refusing to do anything for them. ; Mr Kown said he had a proposition to submit to the meeting which he would preface with a few observaiions. The

resolution which he would submit m«rely affirmed what he thought they were all convinced of—namely, that they required belter harbour ace immodation than they possessed at present. That : was so patent to all, that it required no argument whatever to enforce it. With reference to harbour accommodation,

they as a community had had less done for them than any community in iN'ew Zealand, and if private enterprise, and the expenditure of money by private individuals, had' not stepped in, they would have had very Rule accommodation of this kind at all. There could be no doubt at all upon the mind of any sensible man that the timehal now arrived, when some substantial, adequate, and competent accommodation was absolutely necessary. They would not be true to themselves if they did not take the right means to obtain the accommodation in this direction that they required. Hitherto, as the Mayor had observed, they had been divided upon this matter; there had been petty jealousies and little divisions amongst them; but now he thought, the time was come when these would be swept away, and when they would'go in unitedly and endeavour to obtain what they required. He trusted

lat in any action now to be taken ley would bury all. these'.little jealousies, and.act unitedly. He.did not eoucur exactly with the observation that they were to discuss that night the question of what •was the best place for a harbour. (Hear, hear.) So far as lie was concerned, he ,was not competent lo judge.. He did not know where the best place was, or what would be the best means of obtaining the objeeft they all desired. That the tiling was absolutely necessary none could deny. The continual breaking away of those wharfs, the onfcinual expenditure jwbich had to bo incurred upon them, and the fact that at alt times the accommodation had been inadequate, must convince every one of that. The thing was of such pre-eminent importance that they could not delay, and they must take some nwaiia to remedy the state of things in pinch they wero placed. How to do that m the best possible manner, he aoknowledged that he did not kdor, and he was pot prepared to pledge himself to any particular scheme or plan. He thought the duty ol that meeting would be to take the .proper,means to obtain the very best possible information, and to arrive at it in ;the best possible : manner. Wot that he iwould .delay the. matter.'lt was one which imperatively required immediate attention, and whatever steps were taken must be taken immediately, and with all possible energy. He need not, ho thought, say much more to enforce the matter. 'J he destruction of property not only on last Sunday,' but repeatedly' had wearied those people who had been spending money. Whit they wanted now was to have proper accommodation for the passenger traffic and. proper accommodation for the vessels trading to that port. There could be no doubt upon the mind of any reasonable man that trade nw injured to a great extent at present because there was no shipping accommodation. For a long time past articles which wero necessary had cost a great deal more than they would have done had there been, jproper acenmnodation for vessels. (Cheers.) For instance, vessels trading here with coal* had been so delayed that ,it was :'almo's# m impossibility to get i.vQsseljS.topottle.at all. Wuqn, ships <li& mm tlief ¥nld, RQfc pnerjjf \ !

their cargoes, and when they were engaged discharging they were exposed to so many dangers that freight was almost double what it would be under other circumstances He knew of a vessel from Newcastle, and the eaptain thought he was going to make a gjod thine becauso of the high rate of freight, but' after experience, the captain said he would not come here again for double the freight. He saw that in other places in New Zealand large sums were about to be expended on harbour accommodation. Otago was about to apply for a large loan' to bring the ships up to the city of Dunedin, and also for a loan of £50,000 to improve the harbour at Oaniaru, a small place. It was their duty, he thought, to endeavour to fix upon the best plan for harbour accommodation, and to endeavour to have it carried out. He hud therefore to proposo the following resolution:—" That in the opinion of this meeting, to meet the Urge and increasing passenger traffic and shipping trade of) the Thames port, it is absolutely necessary to obtain better harbour accommodation than we possess at present," He was quite sure the meeting would concur in the resolution, and that they would all unite to obtain what they wanted. Captain Souteb said that after the able speech of Mr '.Howe' he need say very little. He might remark that' he had visited Dunedin thirteen years ago, when they had only very small wharfs; now they had a dock which would take one of her Mnjesty's frigates. In -Hokitika, in the early days he had seen wharfs washed away, but Government always, repaired them, so that vessels from Sydney and Melbourne could be accommoJated. At the Grey, the provincial authorities had erected wharfs on one side of the river, and the Nelson Government had erected wharfs-at the other; so as to divert the trade. Tue Thames had been in existence about half the time in which Dunedin had so greatly improved, and yet they had no accommodation for any vessel to discharge. Mr O'lCekffe said that he had gone up the .river, with Mr .Carruthers, Mr Whitaker,' and the Minister of ft orks to inspect the proposed harbour some years ago. Plans were prepared by Captain Goldsmith, which would give a great.deal of information on the subject. - He (Mr O'ieeffr) would be happy to furnish the committee with any information he possessed. 'I he resolution was then put and carried unanimously. ,; ' ! ■ ,; ■' ' Mr UENSEiw said it appeared tli'ere were not two opinions about tfie desirability of having, better.-.accommodation* and all of them had come to the conclusion that what they had was very poor indeed.' Those who'were in the habit of coming herewith small boats got into the safest possible places, but those who were new to the place universally condemned it, and bavins; been here ' once uttered something lib a vow that it would be a very high price of freight to tempt them to come here again. . here seemed not to be two ideas with regard to the fact that they were, poorly iked with reference to harbour accommodation, but there were many different opinions as to the best place. They wanted' s iraething done which would be permanent, and also something to meet their present need. They wanted the Municipality to have the foreshore, to borrow money upon it, to be expended under proper superintendence. But they had not yet got the foreshore, and could not bjrrow m>ney upon it. While all this was held in abeyance, the storms were not held in abeyance, and in the meantime they must provide for preseut necessiti'S. ft was proposed that a wharf should he put out at Tarilru for the passenger accommodation, and that vessels with 'goods should go up the river to Kopu. It seemed to him that they would have a difficulty in Knowing who they should go to. If they went to the General Government they might-refer ; them to the Superintendent, and ; if they went to the Superintendent, ■lie, would perhaps tell them he had not fulf power'. Most persons thought, however, that under the circumstances they should go to the Superintendent, and take his advice as to the proper measures to to be adopted. He would propose the following motion:-" Chat a committee

be appointed to wail' upon his Honortbe Superintendent to arrange measures to effect the object mentioned in the first resolution ; such committee to consist of

his Worship the Mayor, Captain Butt, Messrs Howe, "outer, Ehrenfried, an 1 Dr. jXilgour,' with power to add to their number." It would be seen that on this committee there were one or two who liad pet schemes of their own, and it was better that it should be so, so that nobody could say that their idea was left out. Captain Butt was generally supposed to be very favourable to having everything at Shortland, while Captain Souter was believed to desire to have everything at Tararu; and between 1 the two they ought to get the fairest decision.

. l)r. KttoooE' said'that as he had been called upon at a moment's notice to second the resolution he bad very little to say upon it. No one there had that

questnn mire at heart than he had. For several years he had laboured to bring about such a knowledge of the question, both on the part of the people of the Thames and the Provincial Government, as i.would enable them to take collective action. He regretted to say that his efforts had not been successful, but he trusted that the present misfortune would be really a benefit to them and be the means of assisting them ; o'it of thoir difficulty. He thought the pro; per course had been adopted in appointing a committee to investigate the question, and not to discuss the various schemes in a public meeting, which could result in no beneficial action. He had, therefore, great pleasure in seconding the resolution proposed by Mr Itenshaw. Mr 'I'Kbeffe proposed that Captain Goldsmith should be added to the committee.

Mr Spbnceb seconded the motion, which was agreed to. Mr O'Kbepfe said he should propose a resolution that the whole of the corres-

pondence between Mr Puckey and the General Government with reference to

the foreshore should bo obtained by the committee.

Mr .owe said he thought they ought not go into matters with which they had nothing to do. He would propose a vote of thanks to the Chairman.

; Mr r.HBENFfIiKD seconded the motion, which was agreed to, and the meeting separated.