122 The Past and Present of the Port of Melbourne. 



opportunity if we continue to temporise, as we have hitherto 

 done, in half-hearted attempts to provide for our need, and 

 continuous neglect of the great dangers with which we are 

 surrounded in reference to the maintenance of our present 

 port and harbour, and of which we have been warned from 

 time to time. 



I cannot conclude without the expression of a hope that 

 my hearers will consider I have established the position 

 assumed at the beginning of this paper, of showing the past 

 of the port, its condition in the present, and of what it is 

 capable in the future. 



