sufficient length to run safely through the surf would be out of the question.

6. If, however, the present open reef were formed into a solid pier by filling up the openings between the rocks, the effect would be, by confining the water to the navigable channel, to straighten, widen, and deepen it to such an extent that it would admit a steamer of sufficient size and power to run safely through the surf in all ordinary weather.

7. It is unnecessary to enter on the question of the best means of executing this work or to discuss the extent of the improvement it would effect in the navigation, because from its very nature, it requires the combined exertions of a larger body of men than could at present be obtained in the Settlement, whilst at the same time it is not of sufficient importance to be worth the notice of the English contractor, and therefore, although I would strongly recommend the opening of the navigation so soon as an increased supply of labor enables the work to be undertaken at a moderate cost; it must necessarily be postponed for the present.

8. The improvement of the navigation being therefore necessarily postponed for want of sufficient labor and the requisite mechanical appliances, we come next to the plan of laying down a railway from Christchurch to the foot of the Port hills, and connecting it temporarily with Lyttelton by inclines worked by stationary power.

9. There are several very serious objections to this plan.

10. As the inclines would be of no use after the completion of the railway; and the money spent upon their construction would be sunk without producing any permanent benefit, the adoption of this plan must depend in a great measure upon the cost of the work. Without expressing any opinion of the merits of the plan in an engineering point of view, I would simply observe that my own experience of similar works in the colliery districts would lead me to estimate the cost of the two inclines with the plant and machinery requisite for working them efficiently at about Sixteen Thousand Pounds, [£16,000] a sum far too large to be sunk on a temporary work.

11. Independently of the question of estimate, it appears to me that inclines worked by stationary power are not suited to the circumstances of a young colony. The snapping of a rope, the breaking of a sheave, or the slightest carelessness on the part of the brakesmen, might not only cause the destruction of life and property to an incalculable extent, but from the difficulty of repairing the damage, might put an entire stop to the traffic for months together.

12. There is a third consideration which appears to me of more importance than either of the two just mentioned; viz., that it involves the abandonment of the Gollan’s Bay line. The advantages to the Settlement of doing away altogether with the risk and expense of lighterage, and the delay thereby occasioned to the shipping is so great, that I think it ought not to be lightly set aside. I cannot concur in the opinion of His Honor the Superintendent that the best way of communicating with the deep water in Gollan’s Bay would be by a continuation of the Cookson’s Valley line through Lyttelton and along the coast, because although this route is shorter than that by Sumner, and although it is practicable to make a high level line from Gollan’s Bay to the east side of Lyttelton, I consider that to carry the railway across Lyttelton and along the north shore of the harbour at the lower level requisite for connexion with the proposed terminus at the old Custom House, would be impossible except at such a cost as completely forbids the contemplation of such a work.

13. It needs no argument to prove that the making of the Gollan’s Bay line would inflict a serious blow to the trade of Lyttelton, and cause a great depreciation in the value of the property in that town, whilst on the other hand the Cookson’s Valley line on account of the great length of the tunnel required, would in all probability cost an equal amount of money with the Gollan’s Bay line, without effecting any improvement in the communication with the shipping.

14. The only plan by which the advantage of a deep water jetty can be secured, without injustice to those who have invested their money in land and improvements at Lyttelton, appears to me to be the following, viz.

1st. To open a road communication with the plains, as early as possible by completing the Sumner road on the lowest level proposed by the late Road Commission.

2nd. To effect a direct communication with the shipping by building a jetty at Gollan’s Bay for the accommodation of large vessels, and connecting it by a railway tunnel with the Sumner road on the north side of the tunnel, the trucks to be drawn up by horses from the landing place in the Bay, to a goods depot on the Sumner road which would afford a ready communication with either Lyttelton or Christchurch.

3rd. When the increasing trade of the settlement shall justify such an expenditure to complete the railway from this goods depot to Christchurch and to work the trains by locomotive power.

15. The execution of these works might be distributed over a considerable period