A WELLINGTON HARBOR BOARD. TO THE EDITOR OF THE EVENING POST.

Evening Post, Volume XVI, Issue 211, 5 September 1878, Page 2

A WELLINGTON HARBOR BOARD. TO THE EDITOR OF THE EVENING POST.

StR — The question of a Harbor Board for Port Nicholson is one of vital importance to this city, and I should like, if you can afford me space for it, to put before the public a few suggestions on the subject. The necessity for the creation of such a body is generally admitted. The question for solution at present is whether the control and management of the harbor should be vested in the Corporation or in a separate Board, to be created specially for that purpose. Our Chamber of Commerce has declared in favor of the latter, and I am glad 'to see that you 1 support them in this view. The objects which the Chamber desire to see secured are, I take it, the following, viz. :— That the accommodation, appliances, and facilities for shipping, and for the import and export trade of the port should be rendered as ample and complete as possible; and that the charges upon shipping, such as harbor dues, light dues, and pilotage, should be reduced to a minimum, possibly even abolished altogether. To attain these objects it is evident that endowments of some sort would be indispensable; and the Chamber suggests that some of the endowments now vested, or about to be vested in the Corporation — endowments of a character usually given to Harbor Boards — should be specially devoted to harbor purposes "and under the control of a separate Board Now; it is argued by some that this would be an improper use of the property of the ratepayers j and they talk as if the burden of these charges was actually borne by the ships "by which they are paid. My present object is to show that they are not really borne by the snibs, that their imposition is a short-sighted policy, and that every ratepayer is interested in their removal. "The fact is that every shilling per ton of port dues is added to the freight charged ; upon the ship's cargo and therefore ultimately Said by the consumer of the goods. I will lustrate this by an example. Suppose a vessel at Newcastle seeking a coal charier to New Zealand. Suppose that Lyttelton has been mbde a free port as regards the charges above referred to, and that at Wellington such charges amount to four shillings per ton 'on a cargo. If the vessel could get a charter for Lyttelton at 15s per ton it would be preferable to one for Wellington at 19s— preferable, because the vessel, having to pay commission for procuring the charter and commission (probably) on collecting freight, would receive less, net, out of 19s in one case than of 153 in the other. An agent would therefore have to offer 19s 6d or 20s to Wellington to get the preierence over 15s to Lyttelton. The coals would thus cost 4* 6d or 5s per ton more, landed in Wellington, than it would if this had been a free port. This increased cost then becomes the basis upon which the importer has to add a percentage to cover expenses, interest of money, risk of bad debts, and profit. Say he takes this at fifty per cent ; fifty per cent on the 4s 6d to 5s increases it to 6* 9d or 7s 6d as the addition to the cost of the coals in consequence of the port charges of 4s per ton. To guard against misconception let me add that I do not assert that our harbour dues amount to 4s per ton; they may be more, they may be less. Nor do I assert that coal importers add fifty per cent to cost price, they may add less or more. But what I assert is that every shilling of harbor dues is added to the cost of imported goods, and that probably another sixpence pr ninepence is added to every such shilling before the goods reach the consumer. The proportion added to the cost will vary according I to the character of the goods, but the principle

i 3 the same throughout. Every imported article is increased in price by the harbor dues, and these dues do not fall on the ship, but upon the consumer of goods. This is not one-fourth of the question, but I fear to trespass too much upon your space. It is, I think, sufficient for my present purpose, which was to show that the question is one the interest of which is not limited to a few merchants, but is of importance to every ratepayer n Wellington. I am, Ice, Vox.