HARBOR BOARDS' CONFERENCE.

Evening Star, Issue 14689, 5 October 1911, Page 4

HARBOR BOARDS' CONFERENCE.

[Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, October 5. The question of harbor board electrons was fully discussed at the Harbors Conference this morning. On the motion of Mr H. C. Tewslcy (Wellington) it was decided that the principle of one man one vote should be followed in harbor board elections, and an elector entitled to vote for blank members of different districts or classes of electors must choose which one particular right, of voting he elects to exercise.—lt was mentioned that the total cost of the last ejections in New Zealand amounted to £4,q47, as compared with £336 for the six previous elections. , . . The conference decided that in respect of any harbor board election that is held simultaneously with the election of tho local authority, where it is necessary to hold a poll "for such local election, the board shall be liable only for costs of advertising and printing other than the compilation and printing of rolls, and a sum equivalent to 10 per cent." of the actual cost to the local authority of conducting its own and the board election, apart from costs of advertising and printing. On the motion of Mr J. 11. Harkness (Wellington) it was resolved that elections for members of harbor boards, county councils, road boards, town councils, hospital and charitable aid boards, a.nd municipal corporations be held upon the- same date and at triennial intervals. The conference also adopted another motion from Wellington that the costs of compiling and printing the rolls for the harbor board elcciious by the various local authorities within a harbor district should be borne by such local authorities respectively. The conference adopted the following motion by Mr W. Belcher (Otago): " That this conference are of opinion that the various harbor boards, as far as possible, should give preference to local manufacturers in acquiring machinery required for harbor purposes."- Speaking to the motion, Mr Belcher stated that two tenders for building the Otago Board's new tug had come from Hongkong, and at a meeting of the board he had protested against either being accepted, because he objected to Asiatic or Oriental conditions in carrying out the work. Both tenders were much lower than those from the Old Country. By accepting the Port Chalmers firm's tender the board wwre keeping money in the Dominion.