PORT OF WELLINGTON.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 24, 28 January 1910, Page 6

PORT OF WELLINGTON.

"WASTEFUL EXPENDITURE V. BAD

MANAGEMENT."

"USELESS CRAKES LYING ABOUT."

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, Thursday.

There was a time when Wellington people were proud to boast of the local Harbour Board. being one of the most efficiently administered public bodies in Australasia, but of late a small army of critics have sprung up to decry its virtues. Reviewing the harbour management at the Tnonthly meeting of the Board to-day, Mr. Fletcher (who came into frequent collision with Mr. Ferguson when that gentleman occupied the position of Engineer of the Board) remarked that, though the revenue had fallen away, the expenditure had been kept up. The removal of the Falcon Shoal, he said, was the only good work done by the Board during the year, but he admitted that some of the works which he disapproved of were legacies from the past. He described the new King's wharf as absolutely useless, and as for the' Clyde Quay wharf, now being constructed in ferro-concrete form, he said he did not know what it was for, and nobody in Wellington could tell him what -it was for. -He held that there had been wasteful expenditure and bad management in the past. Wellington was a natural harbour, he added, but on present appearances it was going- to- be the dearest port south of the line.-

Dr. A. Newman (Mayor of the city) said the more he learned of the Harbour Board's business, the more he was horrified. " "There has," he said, '"been extravagant expenditure of the deepest dye. It is idle to disguise the fact that when the works now in hand are finished there will be large taxation on shipping, destroying the life blood of the shipping." He characterised the Petone wharf, which is to cost £11,000, as useless," and stated that thousands of pounds had been wasted on "useless cranes lying about the wharves." Then there was "the large amount expended and authorised for the useless dock, which can never pay its way, and the still more extravagant expenditure on Miramar —a sheer waste of money." Dr. Newman submitted that the effect of the charges that would have to be levied to cover the cost of these various enterprises would be to drive away shipping, and Wellington depended on the shipping. He contended that in various respects, especially the working of cargoes, the operations were not as economical as possible. There were too many heads of departments. The present Engineer (Mr. Marchbanks), who had been brought up in a good school, should be made general manager.