THE H.B. TRIBUNE. TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1911. HARBOUR BOARD FINANCE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 72, 7 March 1911, Page 5

THE H.B. TRIBUNE. TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1911. HARBOUR BOARD FINANCE.

At this time last year, when the Harbour Board was preparing to take a poll of the ratepayers on a proposal to borrow £300.000 for the purpose of extending the Breakwater Harbour Works, the public was told time after tune that if the proposal was defeated the Board’s finances would be in a mess and there would have to be an increase in the rates. In more truculent quarters it was held out as a threat that if the ratepayers would not vote a loan, the work should be carried on out of rates. The outcome was strikingly different; the loan was defeated, the harbour rate was reduced by 25 per cent., and the Board reduced its overdraft during the year to the extent of £7654. The reduction in rates amounted to, in round numbers. £5OOO. so that

had the same rate been struck as during the previous year, the Board’s position would have improved to the extent of well over £12,000. In view of the dire consequences with which the district was threatened, the outcome is certainly not much of a testimony to the financial capacity and good judgment of those responsible. Why is it that the advocates of the Breakwater Harbour should think it necessary to fool and mislead the public ? Why can’t they be honest and disclose the whole of the facts? In the “Daily Telegraph’’ last week, there was published without comment or introduction of any kind, a tabular statement showing the “saving to the district” through some small shipments made from the Glasgow wharf during the past year. The inference supposed to be drawn from these figures is that if the Breakwater Harbour was con.pleted the saving would be propor tionately greater. The promoters of this Breakwater “ad” omit to point out that the saving to be effected would be just about counterbalanced by the cost of maintenance, the net result being that the district would have to find some £15,000 a year interest as the cost of gratifying the desire of those who are anxious to make the Breakwater Harbour fit to accommodate the Home liners. The Breakwater is like a costly piece of labour-sav-ing machinery, the wear and tear of which is so great as to swallow up all the profit and leave a debit balance at the end of the year; the Breakwater promoters always omit this view of the case. Why can’t they be honest?