HARBOUR BOARD ELECTIONS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 100, 10 April 1911, Page 9

HARBOUR BOARD ELECTIONS.

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE TOWN OF HASTINGS. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,-

TN my last address, when offering you my services on the Harbour Board. J omitted to state that I notified the Chairman of the Harbour Association .at Napier on resignation of the Secretaryship, that I should reserve, the right to stand as an Independent Candidate for election to the Harbour Board, and that my platform would be " a Harbour for Hawke'.* Bav.”

Consequently I do not consid-u myself bound by any selection of the Harbour League (of which I am not a member) may make. I know I can be successful if I have its support. I hope I shall be successful even if 1 do not have it. more especially as I drink both beer and water. At any rate I have my Independence, which is the sweetest part of existence. I have already stated through the Press that I would rather become a Member of the Harbour Board than a Member of Parliament, because Charity should begin at home; and if by surrendering my' chances of political success at the next Parliamentary Elections I could advance the construction of our Harbour, I will gladly resign my intention to stand as Parliamentary' Candidate. I concluded my last address to you by pointing out how a small beginning could be made towards land reclamation, be self-support-ing. and at the same time be obtaining the depth we desire alongside the existing wharfage accommodation. That wharf must of necessity be strengthened, but Mr. Reynolds tells us this has to be done in any case, as it is in a state

of disrepair. And now on a bigger scale I want to show what good a Board can do.

The system of reclaiming the Piako Marshes, which 1 inspected this time last year, is this: — Drains and waterways are dug, which let the water out through low embankments- the tide is prevented from coming up these drains and waterways by gates which only open out. All that fringe of marsh round the Inner Lagoon ran be kept tide free by a similar system, and the land in the vicinity of Taradale and Greenmeadows much increased in value. Accompanying this should be the continuation of the good work done by the Syndicate in utilising the Tutackuri silt deposit, and this can be assisted by the more extensive dredgings which can be gradually undertaken in the Inner Harbour area. The embankment to replace the old Westshore Bridge has to come, as a tramway or railway to Petane people will insist upon, whether the Government decide to construct a spur line from Hastings or start the construction of the East Coast Railway from there. Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, what remains to be done? • Remove the Boulder Bank! Take a few feet off the Shoal (1 j am sorry that rock ( .') is beginning Ito be a bore, because somebody may get slipped up on it again). And Io and behold! | The Harbour is constructed. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.— i My Platform is Reclaimed Land! * And the existence of Rock in the i Breakwater Harbour. EUSTACE LANE.