WESTPORT HARBOUR

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 32, 7 August 1919, Page 8

WESTPORT HARBOUR

FINANCIAL POSITION.

A' deputation representing the Westport Harbour Board .waited upon members of Cabinet yesterday to discuss the financial position of the board. The Ministers present were Sir James Allen, the Hon. W. H. Herries, the Hon. A. M. Myers, the Hon. T. M. WilfoTd, the Hon. G. W. Russell, and the Hon. W. D. S. MacDonald, while the deputation, which was introduced by Mr. J. Colvin, M.P., consisted of Blessrs. W. T. Sley and AV. H. M'lntyre. The deputation, had previously discussed the matter with' the Minister for Marine, and he atrranged! for them to meet Cabinet. The deputation made a full statement regarding the. falling revenue of the board and the need for Government assistance. The Government was interested already as-the guarantor of a loan of £200,000 raised by the board, and it was a matter of importance to the whole country, moreover, that Westport should be kept open as a coal porji. Tile deputation asked particularly for the repeal of sect* n 109 of th© Finance Act, 1915, under which the board, which received a share of prdinary railway revenue, is denied a share of the extra ■ revenue raised by means of war increases. It also urged the necessity for the Minister of. Railways handing to the board a statement of the revenue and the expenditure received by the Railway . Department at Westport, and also the several separate amounts debited by the Department to the board. Sir. James Allen congratulated the deputation , on' the manner in which. it had presented the board's case. Cabinet had decided that something should bo done to relieve the position of the board, and that the whole matter would be gone into as soon as possible, and ail endeavour would bo made to see whether some solution could not" be made of the present unsatisfactory state of affairs.