YESTERDAYS DEPUTATION.

Evening Star, Issue 12927, 25 September 1906, Page 7

YESTERDAYS DEPUTATION.

DtTKEfiIN AND ITS FOftESHOEE. fJFfcok OtjH. PAil/IAMBHTAAS RjEPOStBB.] y-' "WELLINGTON, September 24. Yesterday's Otago deputation spent from 12-15 p.m. to 2.30 p.m. with the Premier. Though as regards restoration of Harbor Board land already taken for railway purposes 6? Any further compensation for such Sir Joseph did not hold out any hope, yet the deputation were somewhat mollified by his promises to provide access to the foreshore and of legislation to protect the Board's remaining endowments. This protection, he indicated, could be given by providing that future resumptions should only be taken under the Public Works Act, in which case they would be paid for at current market rates. The expression of thanks at the close of the interview indicated toiied feelings on the part of some. The Hon. T. Fergus thanked the Premier for what ho termed "a modicum of justice," and also said that he was pleased to knew that their labor had not been in vain; that they could go back to Dunedin, and say they had at least got some substantia] relief. He only trusted that the legislation promised would enable them to get money to increase the Board's revenue, and enable them tb carry on necessary harbor works. —How and Why Taken.—

Perhaps the two points on which the Premier laid the greatest stress Were these —that the Government had paid for the sixty-seven and a-half acres taken in 1879 at a valuation made by two arbitrators approved by both sides, and that the railway yard in Dunedin is not excessive for even present requirements, ■nor is it at all large in comparison with the areas in other centres. He reminded the deputation that the Government did not want to inconvenience Dunedin, and that if the area of the railway yard were cut down serious inconvenience "would result to Dunedin from the shifting of the poods yao-ds, etc. That would be the inevitable consequeiice. Sir Joseph also intimated that seven acres near Pelichet Bay intended to be taken bv the Railway Department had been abandoned. —What institution Would Mean.—

j * * <nlgg«6tion of giving land back were given practical effect to there is onlv one way in which it would bo done!" said the Premier. "It would mean that all the goods traffic now centring in Dunedin would require to be moved some distance away. I am not alone in thinking that the goods sheds, the whole of the engine sheds, and Ihe whole of the workshops would require to be taken a, considerable distance from Dunedin. I am persuaded that it would be a mistake for Dunedin to allow anything of the kind to bo done." —Past Happenings.— "Don't ask for what is unreasonable," counselled the Premier. "We can't possibly commence to unravel the happenings of twenty- seven 'years ago. I realise that something must bo done. We want to help the City of Dunedin, and if we can, by acting in a reasonable way, we want to ensure a higher value being 'placed on the lands outside the railway yards." —The Premier and Mr Fergus.— "I don't think so," interjected the Hon. T. Fergus, when the Premier stated that all the land from Crawford street to Cumberland street (known as the Crawford street block) was reclaimed by the Government, and handed back to the Harbor Boa.rd. "At all events," replied the Premier," I am right in saying that the land was reclaimed, and what was reclaimed was handed back to the Harbor Board, and from those leases thev get most of their revenue." Previous to this Mr Fergus had combated, not with entire absence of warmth. Sir Joseph's contention that the £25,500 at which the two arbitrators (Messrs Donald Reid and William Blair) had assessed the sixty-seven and a-half acres taken in 1879 (the pavment of which by the Government to the Harbor Board, Sir Joseph remarked, had not been alluded to by Mr Fergus) was fair value for the land.' Mr Fergus maintained that this was only the actual cost of reclamation, exclusive of a proportion of the administrative cost of the Board being charged to it, and certainly was not pavment for the fee simple of the land. • Subsequently Mr Fergus complained that this was the only case where the Government had taken from a local authority an endowment granted by a Provincial Government He asked whether the Otago Presbyterian Church reserves would be safe, and the City Council reserves. He admitted that the Government had resumed endowments granted to local bodies by the General Government, and Sir Joseph re. minded Mr Fergus that as a former Minister for Public Works he (Mr Fergus) had been connected with transactions of that kind.