THE NAPIER HARBOR BOARD.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10626, 3 June 1897, Page 3

THE NAPIER HARBOR BOARD.

l&Mhe Napier Corporation finds that i there is anffiolent sCrir iv ODe offioer t0 J '°°fc aim the r&te-booka and collect the I rates for the borough, The secretary of J the Harbor Board has exaotly the same I persons to deal with ; he has In addition e?ory ratepayer ia Hastings borongh, Hawke'a Bay, and part of Waipawa a,nd Walroa to look^.af tor. (The JPataDcofca Oonnttll takes a more sensible view of the i situation and paya the HBrbor rates itself). In addition to the dnty of col- : leoHnß all these individual rates the seciretary has to oolleot rents from the numerous Harbor Board tenants, and he baa to do the secretarial work of the ! < office. The reanlt (many will think the natural reeolt) of this la that matters financial have got into condition. It is no secret that some weeks since the Board had to engage two accountants to pat their acoounts into snoh a condition that they were to some extent understandable. In addition to this the secretary la also treasurer, and is supposed to keep aooountu, and I understand is supposed to present every month a fairly full and oorreot statement of the position of the several accounts, Now the Board asks that the aeotetaty, who haß about four times ai much to do as the Corporation officer, Is also to take the position of engineer 1 The only excuse I can hear of for the combination of the officea la that in Welling' too the engineer ia also seoretary. His salary 1< £1000 per annum Bat the Wei* Uneton Board Ib not a rating body, and there the engineer has no harbor to bnild. What a contrast— Wellington at £1000 tier year and odeqaate office assistance, and Napier with extensive engineering works, collection of rates from thousands of ratepapers, keeping all accounts of numerous harbor properties, sinking /node, &o , at a salary of £400 ! The position only requires to be Bet out reasonably full" to show that the Board has utterly failed in Its duty to the district, and instituted a Btnte of thlogs wbloh must bring it into ridionle. Is there no one who will attempt to justify the very eccentrlo action of that body which has for years held Itself op as the director of a work which was to result io the greatest good for the distriot?-I am, &c, Townsman. Napier, Jnne 2nd, 1897.