THE H.B. TRIBUNE. TUESDAY, NOV. 26, 1912. THE EMBANKMENT QUESTION.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 302, 26 November 1912, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE. TUESDAY, NOV. 26, 1912. THE EMBANKMENT QUESTION.

The meeting of delegates held yesterday to discuss the railway embankment question was most disappointing. Hitherto the greatest unanimity' has prevailed among the delegates and everything worked towards a thoroughly successful arrangement of the question before the committee. Yesterday, however, a “change came o’er the scene.” To all previous meetings the Rivers Board had refused to send a delegate, declaring that they were not interested, but when the meeting opened Mr. Ormond appeared in response to the invitation sent to him and proceeded eai ly to take a hand in the proceedings. Mr. J. V. Brown (Mayor of Napier) also appeared forj the first time at the conference andi wanted to know a lot of things which I he could have known had he attend-1 cd previous meetings. These two I gentlemen successfully managed to; show that the Hon. AV. Fraser was correct when, he said the local bodies were squabbling among themselves. They raised dissensions yesterday that never existed before, ■ and plainly shewed a desire to put a j sprag in the wheel of the inner har-l hour chariot. Mr. Ormond bad| studiously refused to have anything i to do with deliberations previously, but the announcement that the Har-| hour Board had decided to go on with the construction of the inner j harbour evidently stirred him to ac- j tion, and he came along wiilt a -notion which, if carried, would certainly have effectually quashed the policy of progress for some years to come. His motion was: "That! considering the importance of tlie questions involved in the settlement of tire position of the railway embankment across the Inner Harbour ample notice should be given; for the consideration of those ques.-| tions by meetings of the local bodies interested ; also that the opinion of the people of the district be obtained.” How a man of Mr. Or- > mend’s standing and intelligence could move such a resolution we do < not know, and it is even hard to un-1! derstand why Mr. Brown, who pro- p fesses to be so anxious for the ■ progress of Napier, should support j this motion. Yet there the facts!-

stand that: these public men have misguidedly attempted to block the prosecution of the harbour development. There is no objection whatever to consulting the people. ::n<! it will be found that an effort will be made on this occasion i hat lias never been made before to take the latopay.ers into the board's confidence. The board has nothing to hide with regard to its policy, and Sir- mo o the people know the more they will appreciate the hoard’s action m coming' fc: ward with a definite policy. But there must be reason jn 1111 appeal to the people fvr thtvr opinion. What does the settle'; at Waipukurau, Puketetere or To Auto know about the bridge site. Do (lie ordinary citizens of Napier < r Hastings km>w which is the best sila for the biidge ! Of course they do; not. it; such matters the public look; for guidance from experts, ami these : experts--the best marine erg/ncom; Australia can pioduce. and ■ chief engineer of the New Zealand I Government—have agreed upon a] site. Why then, in the name of commonsense, ask the people to decide what is purely an engineering prob-j lem ! What after all is there to decide ! Will not the people be consulted in the end ? The facts arc plain enough to satisfy anybody. The present: Westshore bridge has to be substituted whether a haibour is constructed or not. The Harbour; Board has decided, however, to make | an inner harbour, and therefore | says that when the next bridge is j being built it must be put in sucli a ; position that it .will not interfere with the. harbour scheme. The rail-, way is also to cross the harbour and the board has said the same thing to the Public Works Department—do not encroach upon our harbour area, j The. engineers of the Harbour Board; and Government met and agreed. | The local bodies interested then 1 thought it would be a good plan to; join issue witli Government in the 1 construction of the railway embank-! went and bridge, and arrange, by | sharing cost, to have a road and j footway as well as the railway on j the embankment. The Harbour! .Board is not directly interested in { the question of communication be- j tween Napier and M eSt.shore. Its; concern is the harbour, but it has; been made plain enough that if the; Railway Department and the local ; bodies have to take a long route in- i stead of a short one to meet the J wishes of the board, that body is pre-1 pared to pay up its share of the ; extra cost. “Is there anything: wrong with that.’” No! The whole; thing is as plain as daylight, and ; for Air. Ormond to come in at the > eleventh hour with his resolution j tempts us to adopt Mr. Lane s: language, and say it is “supremely | ridiculous.” Ridicule, however, is ! hardly tlie right term because the; chances are these side-steppings will j lead to serious disappointments. It I we higgle and haggle much longer: we may find Government hanging; up the construction of the East; Coast line until tlie community ’ comes to its senses, and from pre-; sent appearances no one would care : to "go nap” on tlie sanity of the; community. We do not wish to mis-: judge Hon. -T. D. Ormond, but his; motion certainly conveys the ini-; pression that he is seeking to side-: track the committee.