Harbour Commission

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 176, 11 July 1927, Page 7

Harbour Commission

CHAIRMAN APPOINTED.

MR J. >. BARTON. 8.M.. OF WANGANUI. HARBOUR BOARD NOT OFFICIALLY NOTIFIED. When a Minister of the Crown pretervea to rigid a silence as the Hon. J. G. Anderson has done resardiuz the personnel of the Commission he is setting up relating to a matter of such great importance as the Napier Harbour inquiry, it would be reasonable to expect that the first thing he would do. after completing the appointments. and before anv other publicity was permitted, would be to communicate the names of the gentlemen he has selected to the chairman and members of the Board whose administration and functioning was to be the subject of the Commission's investigations. This, however, the Hon. the Minister for Marine has omitted to do. Up to a late hour this morning, the chaiman of the Board. Mr A. E. Jull, had received no communication on the subject from the Minister, and the first intimation that a charman had been appointed, and that the Commission would commence its sittings on August Ist. came to him at 11 o'clock this morning, when he was shown the following paragraph which appeared in Friday’s issue of the Wanganui “Herald” :— “Mr J. 8. Barton. S.M.. has been appointed chairman of the Napier Harbour Board Commission which will commence its sittings on August 1. It is contemplated that the Commission will ait for some weeks. A Magistrate will be sent from Wellington to Wanganui during the absence of Mr Barton.” It will be remembered that although he had then secured the services of an expert engineer to sit on the Commission, the Minister, when he met the Harbour Board in Napier on Saturday. July 2nd. declined to reveal to them his name, or the name of the business-man who was to act in that capacity on the Commission. but contented himself with saying “that one of the commissioners will be an Australian engineer. possessing wide experience and knowledge of harbour works and he baa already indicated his willingness to act.” While it would be improper for the Minister to reveal the names of the engineer commissioner, and the commercial commissioner, it now appears that it is quite proper for an outside newspaper to reveal the name of the chairman commissioner.