HARBOR BOARD RETRENCHMENT.

Evening Star, Issue 7345, 18 October 1887, Page 3

HARBOR BOARD RETRENCHMENT.

TO THB EDITOR. Sib, Having observed that the Harbor Board have appointed a committee " to consider and report upon the position of the Board in regard to ways and means, and to recommend a. polioy or course for the future,"! would respeotfully ask to be allowed to make a few suggestions to the Committee, In addition to the recommendation of the Hon. W, H. Reynolds—that all the property within a certain raidius should pay a small rate for the improvement of the harbor (this tax is not without precedent, as many years ago the inhabitants of Singapore oheerfully submitted to a tax on their property, so as to allow all shipping to enter their poit free of dues, which in a few years made it the greatest se.t of commerce in all the Eist Indian Archipelago)—l would further recommend the Committee to take into their consideration that, while the Board are hard pressed for funds to carry out the necessary improvement of the harbor, the City of Dunedin and all the surrounding municipalities are running all their sewage into it, and ate not paying the Board for lifting it. Allow me then to su?g st that a Bill should be passed during the present session, providing that Dunedin and all the tuburbs running their sewage into tho harbor should b? compelled to take the"r towage to the Ocean Beach, which would cost a lot of money, or tba. they agree to pay to the Harbor Board a smal' rate on all the proptrty so accommodated by being allowed to run their sewage into the harbor, the innocuous effects of the salt water on all animal and vegetable substances making them perfectly harmless. I would also ask liberty to inform your readers that the Board are nqw getting much better value for their money than they once did. For instance, the big dredge, which for a long time had a world-wide reputation of being the biggest dredge in the world and the biggest failure, has long since become as great a sucoass as it previously was a failure. So that with this small increase to their income, and cutting off all unnecessary expenditure, they would be able to go on until our harbor was (all thines considered) the best in New Zealand.—l am, etc., Obbbrvbb. Dunedin, October 18. ': „