HARBOUR BOARD VACANCY.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LII, Issue 8392, 14 September 1923, Page 3

HARBOUR BOARD VACANCY.

(To the Editor). Sir,— Realising that it must have been with a feeling of indignation that the ratepayers of Wairnapn, Te Puna and Katikati, received the news of the County Council’s election of a so-called representative to the Harbour Board, in place of the late Mr Southey, I feel it my duty to let them know how this thing has been manipulated. At the first County Council meeting, when this matter should have been decided so that the member could sit at the Harbour Board's nest meeting, it was resolved, on the Chairman’s casting! vote:, to leave the appointment over till the next meeting. Be it noted, eight councillors were present, only one being absent, and lie, the representative of the eastern extremity of the county. Yet, in face of the opposition of all the western members, the matter was left over, it was stated, for the full council. Whether this delay wag intended to give the Eastern members time to locale a suitable( ?) representative, who might hold the bare legal qualification', or whether it was because Air King had not sufficient backbone on that occasion to use his casting vote for a man already chosen, is difficult to decide. The only honourable courser for any fair-mnded chairman was to point out to his Council that the trust confided in that body should be exercised in the interests of the people who had lost their representative. In this test, our County Chairman showed himself not a. statesman, but a partisan, and thereby allowed bis next meeting’s action; to-develop into a public scandal.

Which of the councillors would suggest that Mr McNaughtou could ever persuade even the smallest proportion of the people he. is tO‘ “represent,” to vote for him at an election contest? In the' light of that gentleman’s own statements regarding improvements on this side of the harbour, one cannot but feel that, had New Zealand been searched from end to end 1 ,-the Council could not have made a more unsatisfactory choice from the point of views of the people he is supposed to represent. If Mr McNaughtou has the smallest amount of self-respect, he will never take the seat'. Though he. is a man of undoubted integrity, if he should stoop so far as to do this, he will forfeit the respect of the people in the Harbour Board district in geni era], and become the laughing stock of the other Board members. Mr King, like a. man of old time, tried t 0 wash his hands of the business by saying that there was “nothing illegal in electing Mr McNaughton.” I want to know not so much whether it was legal, as whether it was mural, for a tried', veteran., such as Mr Lochhead, who ha s represented the district on many boards, to be put aside for a man whose property interestg outside the area, to be represented, suited; the whim of such a man as Mr Morton, who thought that the Mount wharf was being shelved. Mr Morton should realise that acts of this kind are not perpetrated with impunity. Every selfrespecting man in his district will resent, what he has done ; and; he, with ins friends, Mr King, and others, will gain the glory of having taken advantage of a man’s death, to attempt to further their own particular ends. Mr Morton s statement shows complete ignorance of the motives of the Harbour Board, which is being guided by the considered judgment of its engineer; and it displays die narrowness of a certain “eastern’' vision, which thinks that the people of Tauranga are opposed to improvements at the Mount. Surely deep-sea shipping is of greater moment to the town of Tauranga than to any other part of the Harbour district! As a matter of fact, onr future is wrapped up in that proposal; yet it seems as though the engineer’s statement that coastal trade should be concentrated at Tauranga for economic reasons, has filled certain individuals with ranch needless apprehension. The people of Tauranga are- confident that larger minds are guiding the affairs of the harbour, as indicated by the comparative unanimity at the last meeting of the Board, on the subject of the urgent need of railway wharf accommodation; at lauranga. Should Mr McNaughtou, a,y “nobody’s representative, so sacrifice his dignit} as to interfere in harbour matters, there is no doubt that he will receive at the hands of the real representatives just the amount of respect duo to him. It is certain that when the matter is placed before the Government, such an undemocratic action will be made impossible for the future. 1 am, etc., „ Y, N. CHRISTIAN. Tauranga, Sept. 12th., 1923.