NINE MONTHS' WORK

Gisborne Times, Volume LXII, Issue 9997, 28 April 1925, Page 4

NINE MONTHS ' WORK

PROGRESS OF HARBOR • - SCHEME. ADDRESS BY MR, G. SMITH. At the conclusion of Mr. G. Wildish’s meeting at the City Hall last evening, the chairman (Mr. W. S. Black) briefly introduced Air. Georgo Smith, chairman of the Gisborne Harbor Board. * Mr. Smith, after .expressing his indebtedness to the Mayor for being allowed to address the audience in the City Hall that night, said he had been a representative on the Harbor Board for a number of years. In view of the fact that lie had held important positions during the last three and a-half years, lie felt it v.es his duty to address the electors and give ari account of his stewardship. He would also like to clear no some of the wild mis-statements made at meetings of prospective Harbor Board members or Harbor Board members themselves. To enable him to reach tlxe point it would he necessary to go hack into the past. When the last election occurred, 1923, the Harbor Board engineer (Air.. Campbell) had ■just- taken up his duties and was busy inaugurating the scheme. it took him until July before he was able to bring a scheme to the Board. Then he recommended a scheme on Air. Reynold’s plan with modifications. The Board considered the report and adopted it, and instructed the Engineer to go to Australia and inspect some plant. Air. Campbell then did so a.nd returned to New Zealand. Later. the sneaker and Air. Campbell interviewed the Railway Department, and went into Che conditions for the, transport of stone. These condition-; were so expensive that the Board : was forced to shelve the question of getting stone up the line. That caused discussion in the Board, and it was easy to see that unless some modified scheme could be devised no progress- would he made. A modified scheme was therefore completed and sent to the Marine Department, but the Department could not agree to it. Then the Minister a.nd Air. Furkert came to Gisborne and went into the whole question with the Board, and finally the Board decided to go on with * the original scheme. Those plans were sent to the Department in April, 1924. hut it was June. 1924. before the Board received word that the plans were approved, and it was from that date, he claimed, the work proper had commenced. Therefore, instead of two years having elapsed, the Board had only been nine months in getting as far as it had to-day. Good progress was now being made and something should be shown each week. It was August before the Board' could except tenders for the steel from the Old Country, and it was late in November before the final units of the plant required were ordered from England. The speaker dealt at length with the big work done —the repairing and strengthening of the Kaiti wharves, the drilling for the blasting. for the diversion cut, the construction yard where 500 huge piles are already made, etc. Air. Smith also dealt with the work of the dredger Korua. She had worked up the river to twelve feet and had cleared berthing at the Ivaiti side and the construction yard. She had lifted 172,000 tons of. spoil and taken it to sea at a cost of G.,d per ton. That was a great record. In regard to expenditure, said Air - Smith, there had been many misstatements. Out of the first £250.000 the Board had spent in discount and other costs of raising the loan £30.000, interest, etc.. ±M2,O. and £2500. for the resumption of land. Then the plant cost £75.000, which included the dredging unit, and on that the Board could claim a credit on the cost of the dredge, for it row had two dredges. I: the Board followed that course, it would bring the cost of the plant down to £45.000. With the plant at £75,000, however, the total expenditure was £IBO.OOO, leaving a credit balance of £70,000 in round figures. He claimed that that .j was a very fair record. For the second £250)000 the papers. were only passed at that- day's meeting. In regard to genera! revenue, the position was also satisfactory. In 1923 there was u debit of £2120 and at the er.d of the year there was a credit balance of £'io79. In the following year the Audit Department ordered the Board to pay hack into the loan account the sum of £3875, which had been debited for the enlargement of the offices. People in influential quarters considered the Board was quite entitled to have debited the money to the loan account. However, it was paid hack and the year concluded with a credit of £o2o« Air. Smith said that without doubt ~ the district wanted to see tne work go ahead, but to liis mind the Board had that day made a very retrograde step. It had been decided to bring -the Lysnar scheme before the notice of the' Board. Personally, lie believed the Lysnar scheme should be put in the waste-paper basket. (Prolonged Applause.) The Board had adopted a scheme and should stand by it. The Board, as at present constituted, Said Air. Smith, is not a thoroughly representative Board. It is up to the Borough to see that it gets proper representation on the Her her Board. y (Applause). Cook county is being diminished. but still lias five membersUntil the Borough get? fair representation the public can expect a blockage at every turn. “We are blocked bv our country members.” said Air. Smith, “and two confessed yesterday they did not want a breakwater.” The Marine Department said we must have a breakwater. If we can get the country members to say straightout they don’t want a breakwater, we wilt know how to deal with the matter. If we don’t nut up a breakwater the Marine Department will quickly come here and do it for us. Tho speaker then dealt at length with the method of work, advocating day labor against contract, as being cheaper for the ratepayers.

The Board had been told In- the Engineer that if it adopted hi* recommendations and fo’l nved out his plans Gisborne would have a safe liarhqr bv next winter, but the proceedings at. the Beard that afternoon would, ho contended', probably mean a* delay of six months or more. They had been told Gisborne was losing £IOOOO a month by prv’nce boats not being allowed to get in. That would mean £OO,OOO, and the cost would "fall on all.

The speaker sat down amidst pro- _ longed applause. C 3 Tn answer to ouestior.s, Mr. Snath said that when the time came to employ the Maui profitably"there would he no objection to bringing her to Gisborne if she i~ not hired out. - The Board, said Mr. Smith, in an-*-swor to another question, could not reverse its policy, but if a new scheme is brought forward it eo’du bo taken to a solicitor to whether the Board must abide bv the present scheme. In answer to another ouestion. Mr. Smith- said he preferred not . to give the. names of the members who lmd a.ssistc' l the other scheme that afternoon, hut it was none of the Borough members, and the tmh-r lie could not do better than put all four back again. Mr. V. G. Bloore proposed a vote of thanks to Mi* Stmth. ?.nd copfi-.'V d'mee in his uoliev. M>* Smith. said the sneaker, is one nf .the streigVest met*, in Gisborne. He .has been battling hard indeed to c-arrv out tlip one work that will place Gisborne on. 7 the ovid. Gisborne is a prosperous and beautiful district, and the speaker would like to see the people of tlio country combine with the p'cpple" of the town and make Gisborne. a place pfawhieh one Tr ust -fee], proud. , ” - Mr. H. Hamntoh''e/'nrid fH | the . srotion, which was harried with applause* -