A HARBOUR BOARD MYSTERY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 826, 26 May 1910, Page 4

A HARBOUR BOARD MYSTERY.

The Harbour Board last evening discussed fclio mysterious loan prospectus prepared in London without its authority some twelve months ago. Sonic points in doubt were cleared " if p. Mil. WlM'oitD, for instance, made it perfectly clear that- his name had been improperly used in connection with the prospectus and without his authority. Indeed ho stated most emphatically that h>.; knew nothing whatever of tli« issuing of the prospectus. The. fact that his name wiis attached to tho document has no doubt created the impression that he was in somo way

connected with the transaction and it is very satisfactory to learn that this was not the case. But the mystery surrounding the whole business is in uo way cleared up by Mr. Wilford's explanation. Rather, it makes tho mystery greater than over. Not only did not Mr. WilroßD supply tho information used in the prospectus, but apparently his name has been attached to a document which he has never even seen. Who could have done this? If the information contained in tho prospectus had been correct it would have been bad enough, but we arc told that it was misleading. Instead of giving the revenue of the board it set out the total retcipU, including loan money, and styled them revenue. In order that our readers may understand what this means, wo quote a portion of a table which appears in tho Harbour Board's Statement of Accounts. This table shows the revenue, capital, and loan money, for a period of years, and is in ithe fallowing form: RECEIPTS. Ecvenne. Capital. Loan. Total. Yr. £ £ £ £

The revenue ,of the Board, it will 1)2 seen, is stated in the second column of the table, the total receipts which include loan money arc given in the last column. It will readily be seen how seriously misleading a prospectus would be which set out the last column as representing the revenue of the Board. And this is what was done according to the copy of the prospectus which has reached Wellington. The only member of the Board who did not appear to realise the seriousness of the situation disclosed was Mr. T. K. Macdonald. This gentleman described tho matter as a storm in a tea-cup. Apparently it is -a trivial matter to him that some unauthorised person should prepare a prospectus for a half-million loan on behalf of the Board of which he is a member, containing grossly misleading statements as to. the revenue of the Board. The attaching, by some unauthorised person, of the name of the Chairman of the Board to that document without the Chairman knowing anything about it, seemingly does not disturb his philosophic calm. Mil. Macdon.ud errs if he thinks the public will regard the efforts of the Board to clear up this mysterious business as a "storm in a tea-cnp." Tho public, indeed, will consider that the Board has a very wrong conception of its duty ' as guardian of tho public interests if it neglects its obligation to probe the matter to the bottom and to bring to light the person or persons, responsible for what has-been done.

1904 117,359 714. 30,000 148.074 1905 124,835 64 50,000 174,949 19C6 141,004 7,378 54,000 202,302 1907 _ 152,376 16,500 408,030 576,906 1908 171,375 - 70,000 241,875