WESTPORT A DEPOT FOR THE WEST COAST.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1072, 16 May 1873, Page 3

WESTPORT A DEPOT FOR THE WEST COAST.

•(To the Editor of the Westport Times.) Sir,—This subject has suggested itself by the present detention of our usual coasting steamers at the Grey and Hokitika. Both the steamers

Kennedy and Charles Edward have been bar-bound attho above ports during the past week or more. Hopes were indulged in that they would have been able to get out 'during the present spring tides, but up to this date there is as little chance of their being able to leave as there was before the spring tides set in, rind unless we have some very heavy freshets it is not at all unlikely but they will have to remain in their present uncomfortable and unprofitable position until the next high tides; not a very pleasant prospect for the owners of the boats or the community at large. Although neither of those vessels draws more than six feet of water, yet it is with risk that they enter those ports when the bars are in the best working condition. It is all very well for the southern press to bolster up such a state of things ; but facts like these should be sufficient to cause some stir among the merchants and others interested, to seek some better mode of communication than that of the very doubtful and hazardous one they have at present. Noticing by recent issues of your paper that there is every probability of a railway being constructed from Westport to the Ngakawhau, and that there is a rumor of the amalgamation of the Albion Coal Company with the New Zealand Coal Company to work the Ngakawhau mine ; the idea has suggested itself that if the said compauies were to increase their capital, and instead of stopping at Westport continue the line on to Greymouth, provided that there is no great engineering difficulties in the way of such an undertaking ; they would find much increased profit resulting. Likewise, I see in recent papers that Hokitika is also bestirring herself, and forming a Steam and Freight Company, with a capital of £15,000, Now, Sir, instead of spending this money on a very doubtful undertaking, considering that they have a bad port, and also will have to contend against competition, would it not be better to vest this money in a similar way by the construction of a line from Hokitika to the Grey, thereby connecting the principal towns on the Coast by rail.

According to a paragraph in your last issue the Westport bar has a depth of fourteen feet, and this is some two or three feet below the average of high tides. The question arises, if such a scheme is practicable, as the connecting of the Coast towns by rail, would it not be to the interests of importers aud the general community to make Westport a depot for the rest of the Coast ? Here is a bar, second to none from Nelson to Milford Sound—let our neighbors say what they can to deny it—that will admit vessels drawing three and four feet more than any at present trading on the New Zealand Coast, and instead ot getting their goods as now, importers may have all vessels discharged at Westport wharves, and goods thence conveyed by rail to either the Grey or Hokitika, or to the northward. I believe goods could be landed at either place by such a mode of conveyance, more cheaply,, and certainly without any of the risks to vessels or cargo now encountered in the Grey and Hokitika roadsteads, besides avoiding, in many cases, a long detention at those ports. Mr Editor, the above I might have sent for insertion in the columns of some of your southern contemporaries, but as there is no chance of getting anything that way until the next spring tides, or wo have some heavy freshets to enable communication to be resumed for another short time, or what is the most unlikely of all, that the Government commence the overland mail route again, it is not likely this letter would get insertion, but would be consigned to the waste-paper basket, so I take the liberty to send it to you, if you think it worth space in your paper ; if not. why, I will content myself by telling some of my friends what a fine port we have here, and how our southern neighbors are on half allowance, and tearing their hair in despair, through bad and unworkable bars. I am, &c, Novice. Westport, May 14, 1873.