PERSONNEL OF HARBOUR BOARDS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 71, 26 March 1910, Page 2

PERSONNEL OF HARBOUR BOARDS.

A COMMERCIAL VIEW. A strong case is made out by tht> Wellington Chamber of Commerce Council in its report for the inclubion in the Harbour Boards of a strong pioportion of men of sound judgment and of experience in commerce, shipping, and finance. If changes are made the object should bo to strengthen instead of weakening this element. The council iv still of opinion that the election of one or more members by the local Chamber of Commerce is a good way of securing at all events a modicum of this element, and 1 it holds that no good reason has been adduced for depriving! them of this j privilege. If a better method of attaining the object can be evolved, it is contended, it would be welcomed by the commercial community, but the council is fully convinced that the provisions of the Bill are not calculated to bring about the desired result. Speaking for Wellington Harbour Board, the council is of opinion that the success that has attended its operations in the past is an argument against rashly revolutionising its constitution without any sound or logical reason. It is not to be supposed that any body of men could carry on a largo and important business for twenty years without mistakes, but the council makes bold to say that the paucity of mistakes committed by the Wellington Harbour Board speaks volumes for the ability and care with which its affairs have been managed. The report adds : "This is, perhaps, especially true of the earlier history of tho board, when the members nominated by the Government were as a rule prominent mercantile men such as th« Chamber itself might have nominated had' it been entitled to appoint four members instead of one."