THE DOCK TRUST.

Evening Star, Issue 7412, 6 January 1888, Page 4

THE DOCK TRUST.

A meeting of tfie Otago Dock Trust was held in the Port Chalmers Borough Council Chamber yesterday afternoon. There were present—The Mayor of Port Chalmers (Mr E. G. Allen), Measr3 A. H. Ross, G. L. Den. niston, A, Thomson, and Dr Drysdale, The Town Clerk, Port Chalmers, requested to be informed as to what the Trust intended doing with the piece of land adjoining the gasworks site owned by the Corporation. Mr D. Law, secretary to the Dock Reserves Leasing Committee, asked the Trust to relieve the Committee from the lease ? ranted to them, on the ground that the rust had no power over the section in question. —It was resolved to cancel the agreement. The Under-Secretary of Marine intimated that Dr Drysdale had been appointed a member of the Trust vice Captain Watson resigned. TUB DOCK. Mr A. H. Ross asked if any alteration had been made in the size of the proposed new dock. The Chairman stated that nothing of the kind had takeD place. MAftor some correspondence to Messrs Billings, Great St. Helens, London (understood to be the purchasers of the dock debentures or negotiators of the loan), had been read, Mr Ross stated that, although he was unwilling to occupy the timo of the Trust, he felt it his duty to say a few words in icferdnce to what had transpired at a former meeting, and for that purpose he would give the particular reasons which he considered would justify his opposition to the action of the Trust in its desire to construct the proposed new dock under the present circumstances. He had already mado public bis ideas on this subject; but he felt ft an imperative duty to bring the matter np again, and desired to lodge a strong protest against the action now adopted by the Trust. He referred to some remarks which had been made at the last meeting by one or more members of the Trust, and which grossly mlsrepreateted the action taken by,

the Harbor Board in reference to the floatI ing of the dock loan on the London market. He had before him copies of the whole of the correspondence which passed between the Board and their financial agent. He first read a letter written to the general manager of the Colonial Bank, by the secretary of the harbor Board ; Dunedin, August 30,1886. Dear Sir,—ln acaordance with resolution of the Harbor Beard at its meeting yesterday, I have the honor to forward you resolutions ot Board re dock question, 29ch Ootober, 1685. Copy of special report do., B(Hh August, 1886. Resolutions of Board Oft adoption of report, 30th August, 1886"; and have *o ask you at your earliest convenience to forward these documents to your managing director, London, with a request that he take action thereon.—l have, eta., John L. Gillijs, Secretary. The first-named documents, which were forwarded to the bank manager, were resolutions passed by tho Board at a time when the Trust was vested in the Board itself, and several months before the present Dock Trust was constituted. These resolutions were moved by Mr Donald Rfcid and seconded by Mr Wftl'eo, and were as follows ;—" That whereas an Act has been passed by the General Assembly which provides, under certain condition", for transferring to a new Trust the powers now held by the Otogo Dock Trust, with the view of immediate expenditure upon dock works, this Board, therefore, desires to place upoli record its strong disapproW. ci the action in question, for the following reasons: — (1) Because r. ,! : have already a commodious doiik, which is ample for all tho shipping frequenting this port, with the exception of the direct steamers, and none of the agents or others directly interested in these steamers have expressed any desire to have a new dock constructed ; on the contrary, those of them who have expressed an opinion have expressed its decidedly against the construction of another dock at present, (") Because the trade of the Port, aild any increase of it which may reasonably be expected for a considerable time, is not sufficient to justify the large expenditure required to immediately construct and maintain a second dock capable of taking the large direct ocean steamers; more especially is this apparent when we keep in view the very limited number of thf.se steamers which would be likely to use it, and that for ether vessels it is not required. P) Because the revenues of the Trust frsm dock and endowments will be quite inadequate to meet the cost of interest, maintenance, and management when the new dock is constructed i and there is reason to fear that the deficiency will be sought to be made Up by extra charges either directly or indirectly on the shipping, which would be most injurious to the trade of the port. For these reasons, and in view of the whole circumstances, this Board, being charged with the care of the shipping trade of the port, takes this opportunity of intimating that while it does not consider that a second dock is required, or that the expenditure for its construction is justified in onr present circumstances, nevertheless the Board will bo pleased to sec a new dock constructed, provided that it !« done without any additional charges being imposed on the shipping ; but it must protest against any expenditure on a new dock which would result in increased burdens on the already heavy charges of the port. That a copy of the preceding resolutions be forwarded to the Government." XWo second <locu.TY\cxit forwarded, was a. copy | of a report presented by a special Committee j appointed to consider matters relating to ! the Trust. The members of that Committee were Messrs Wales (chairman), J. B. Thomson, D. Reid, J. Hislop, and E. B. Cargill. The report presented to the Board on the ' 20th August, ISSC, was as follows :—" The Committee recommend that tho Board approve of the action of the Chairman (Mr Wales), in his capacity of member of the Dock Trust, in voting against the proposed resolution to proceed with the immediate (bating of a loan, and to send an agent to London to assist in doing so and to purchase material and plant. The Committee find that the actual net revenue of the Dock Trust earned for the year ending olst December, ISSS, was Ll,Gill .'is lOd ; net balance of dues, LV.V2 Os 3d ; and rents, L73U 3s 7d. interest upon funds deposited at present is not reckoned as revenue, inasmuch as that would of course disappear with the expenditure of the principal. In view of the published accounts of the Lyttelton dock, which barely pays working expenses without interest, it is impossible to reckon upon any considerable accession of revenue from the now deck over and above working expenses. Revenue to be derived from endowments requiring a first heavy outlay to make them available for letting in the future is of very doubtful value, there being at present no demand for any such land for leasing, and very little prospect of demand in the near future. The only revenue, therefore, that can bo looked to at present to meet interest on a loan to be raised is the actual net revenue of the past year as shown by the accounts—say LI,GDI 3s lOd. The estimated cost of the dock is LSO.OOO, the interest on which, at 5 per cent., would be L 4,000. The Committee therefore are strongly of opiuiou that it would he exceedingly unwise to attempt to borrow to the extent required on the security available, or to proceed with the construction of a second dock for this port until sufficient revenue can be guaranteed to meet the interest on the cost." After some discussion the consideration of the report was adjourned to a special meeting, which was held on the 30th August 18SG, when the report was adopted, and a resolution—- " That the financial agents of the Board in London bo requested, in the event of the proposed dock loan being placed for negotiation, to take steps to make known the views of the Board as to the value of the securities." This resolution, with that adopting the report of the Special Committee, form the third document forwarded with the Secretary's letter, 30th August, ISS6. A second letter was written by the Secretary to the general manager, Colonial Bank of New Zealand, Dunedin, on the 2nd December, ISSO, as follows: Dear Sir, lam instructed by the Chairman of the Otago Harbor Board to request you to communicate with your Mr Cowie, by code, to make sure that he will carry out the wishes of the Harbor Board as conveyed to him by resolution of 30th August ult.—Yours, etc., John L. Gillies, Secretary. Although he (Mr Ross) was not present at any of the meetings of the Board at which the resolutions referred to were dismissed, he quite approved of the action of the Board, lie considered that, as the conservators of the shipping interests of the port, the Board would have been guilty of a dereliction of duty had they done less than they had done. They might, in his opinion, have gone a great deal further without being open to any valid imputation of being influenced by any animus against Port Chalmers or the D«ck Trust, lie had been assured that no other correspondence had passed from the Board to their financial agents, and he understood that the circular which had been issued in London—which he had not seen—contained only a statement of the facts set forth hi such correspondence. He hoped we should hear no more of the action of the Harbor Board having reduced the price of the loan. Tfee loan ought never to have been floated at the price. The late Mr Macandrew had stated at that table that if the loan could not be floated at par at 4 per cent, he was of opinion we had better not float it. It would have been well if his opinion had been respected and acted upon,

The Chairman stated that the resolutions read by Mr Ross had already appeared in print, but he failed to sec that Mr Ross had placed before them a true statement of the Trust's affairs. The Harbor Board had formulated certain charges against the Trust, the result of which had been that that body had been forced to pay an excessive rate of interest on the loan they had obtained.

l)r Drysdale was of opinion that although, perhaps, the Harbor Board were not inimical to the Trubt, thoy had permitted certain statements to go forth which had the effect of seriously injuring the Trust. Mr Thomson considered that the Harbor Board had treated the Trust very hardly, and proceeded to review the action of the Board at some length. Mr Ross did not consider it worth his while to enter into any discussion with Mr Thomson in the matter. ISBISTEIt's SLIV.

A letter was read from Messrs Fraser and Stilling, the solicitors to the Trust, in reference to Mr Isbistcr's slip at Mansford Bay. Mr Ross took exception to the payment of any moneys without their being passed by the Finance Committee. The Chairman explained that certain payments had to be made at times when it Was inconvenient to call a meeting of the general body. financial. In answer to a question the Secretary stated that a sum of over LSOO was due to the Trust for rates and rents. The Chairman stated that he had requested the manager of the Bank of N«w

Zealand to return the three sets of debentures placed in his hands for issue, which he had failed to do. Mr Ross doubted if the issue of these debentures had been notified by the Trust The Chairman said that tho Trust had placed confidence in certain of the members, and had ratilied any agreements cnteiel intto by them.