Harbour Board Election.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 20, 25 January 1901, Page 3

Harbour Board Election.

To THE EoIIQU OE THE TIMES.

Snq—Thu time for nomination of memhers for 11 scat on the Harbour Board being close at hand, it behoves the ratepayers to look into the qualifications of intending candidates for the seat. Up to the present time one only has come out with his address. That address, to my mind, is worthy of the best consideration of all who have the interests of the port at heart. The tendency of the times is to spend money right royally, and to lot the future take cave of itself: but the day of reckoning will come, and to make that day more acceptable we require a brake on the •spending proclivities of our members. That brake we shall have in Mr Shelton, without doubt. It will be within the recollection of most residents that he was a member of the Gisborne Harbor Board when the breakwater was being built, and that it was entirely due to the action which lie then took in stopping all further expenditure on the breakwater —that we now have the balance of the 1*200,000. Mr Shelton's thorough business qualities and complotc knowledge of the requirements of the port, combined with his well known energy, should make him a member suited to the progressive age we live in. llis views on the abolition of all harbor rates should commend themselves to all ratepayers, as with the enormous increase on the amount of warfages received, consequent on the large volume of trade, such an abolition of rates should be possible, Looking back over the last seven or eight years, it must be admitted that shipping facilities of our port have not kept pace with the increased trade, and the benefits resulting from the expenditure of such a large sum during that period have not been up to expectations. We need new blood occasionally in all our local Councils, men with go-ahead ideas, who have energy and determination to succeed, and who do not know what failure means, men who have a large stake in the district, and who can exercise strict economy even when spending other people s money, I am, etc.,