Grey River Argus and Blackball News. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY; DECEMBER 10th 1908

Grey River Argus, 10 December 1908, Page 2

Grey River Argus and Blackball News. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY; DECEMBER 10th 1908

T.9E affairs of the Greymouth Harboi Biiird have got into a very unsatisfactory condition., .It is unnecessary as it would be unprofitable to try to sheet home the blame in any quarter. The only tiling 1 to decide now is how to make the. best of matters. But how that is to be done is not quite clear. Tihe board has "to face the fact thai the Government cannot, or will not, advance any more. money or finance the : board in any way ; and yet the Govrenment's security is behind the debentures; which makes them as safe and valuable as any other Government stock,- and _as convertible into current coin as Treasury Bills. But how much better off would the boardi be if all the debentures Ayere converted into cash? They have -embarked on a gigantic sdheme of work -iKat-may cost any sum up to a-mil-lion. At the rate at which the board's expenditure is going oh, if '..we -accept, Mr Michel's comiputatiori, the whole amount would not last very; long; and there is no assurance -that the board could obtain permission to raise another, fifty or a hiradred : thousand as circumstances might require.. What tihe~xonstruction : of the docks would ultimately cost is a rather open ques-' tion ; jthat has •: yet been decided The question thro suggests itself—

Is; it wise for the members of the, boar! to proceed any further while their finances are in so precarious a (position? It would seem to us that unless they can get a guarantee from the Government that they intend to get the docks' plan carried out there is very little use in the board continuing- to occupy their thankless positron any longer. As for Mr Murdoch's suggestion that the numbers of the board proceed to Wellington "at their own expense," the idea is not worthy of consideration. There have been a great deal too many of such costly deputations—for the)' invariably prove expensive to the board— to listen to Mr Murdoch's proposal. Mr Coates's motion to close down on tihe 19th inst was more sensible. ißy doing so. the board can take breathing- time during the holidays and ascertain -if jt is possible to make financial arrangements for the future. That can be done. as effectively from here as if the whole board went to Wellington to try to worvy Ministers into doing something they are either unable or unwilling to do. In either case the board is entirely dependent upon the Government, and we fail to see that any real benefit is to be derived from realising on the whole of the debentures that have been already pledged as security for the £10,000 advanced by their banker, unless they have the assurance that Government will sanction further loans as required. The amount required to carry out the dock plans may he approximately arrived at from t)he calculation of Mr Michel, who says that if they kept the works going till the end of January "the board wouM be ;&22;ooo to "the bad," and that would be with anticipating the revenue to come in. At this rate ;£ioo,ooq would not go very far especially -with a > body that has not earned a reputation for economy. Taking this view, would the board benefit themselves or anybody else by takinj Mr Guinness's 'advice to get rid of their remaining debentures by ofefiing a higher rate of interest ? As Mr Michel properly remarked, the board has no power, and must do as Government wishes. Then why bother about prolonging an existence for only a few months, when they know that their effectiveness as a live body must then cease for want of funds to enable them to carry on. We are inclined to agree with Mr Michel that the responsibility for the difficulty that has been brought about should be thrown on the Government at once without any further parleying. The harbour will be no worse off for accommodation than it has been all along. As we have no expert, trade to foreign . parts the ordinary coal trade will not be materially affected one way or another. We migh:. hope with Mr, Michel that the works will not be stopped; but how the/ are to be carried on without money 13 not easy to see. Mr Guinness, who seems to know of what he speaks, says that Government has no money to give ; and we believe that that is the case. Tihe advances to settlers seem to have drained all the available resources of Government, and they have no money for any other colonial purpose at present. So far as can be ascertained, the Wes*port deputation that recently waited on the . Premier regarding the .£200,000 har- ; hour loan for that port had to come back empty-handed with the polite intimation that they must finance for themselves, as Government had troubles enougih of their own of that kind. Between the importation of Oregon timber and harbour board troubles, it would appear that the West Coast is in for a rather bad time, and the whole of the responsibility for which can only fall on the shoulders of Government, who seem to have been caught napping while indulging in the •middle of optimistic dreams. The difficulty with our board is serious enough to call for the most urgent attention.