THE NEW PLYMOUTH HARBOR WORKS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 14, 29 May 1880, Page 4

THE NEW PLYMOUTH HARBOR WORKS.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE STAR.

Sir,— Now that the session of 1880 is fast approaching, I wish to call the attention of my fellow-settlers to a glaring injustice, that it behoves us to do our utmost to resist while yet there is time. I allude more especially to the allocation of 25 per cent, of the proceeds of the sale of the Waiinate Plains to the Harbor Works at New Plymouth. Some may say the thing is passed by the House, and there is no use to try and upset it, but I hold a different view to that. " Circumetances alter cases," and the present instance is a case in point. I do not hold with provincial districts being divided amongst themselves, believing in unity of purpose to obtain any measures, but the New Plymouth Harbor Works Bill lias been a heart-burning question for years. The great cause of injustice to settlers in this district is the fact that the three Tai-anaki members are New Plymouth men, whose whole in-

terest lies at the New Plymouth end of Taranaki. One member was always opposed to the harbor site expenditure, but he has had to swim with the stream, in a measure ; at any rate, he promised not-to interfere with the Bill, looking upon it as a foregone thing. But in the face of manhood franchise, the depressed state of colonial finance, and the already enormous expenses incurred relative to the Waimate Plains, I consider that the whole harbor question stands on a very different footing, requiring a thorough and searching investigation in the House, before this district should be unwillingly and unrighteously ruined in financial prospects for the sake of the people inhabiting New Plymouth and surrounding districts.

It would be as well if we look at the position in its true light, and then realise the necessity of united action, in the Patea county especially, of combatting by every legal means the horseleech propensities of the New Plymouth district.

The New Plymouth Harbor Board has power to raise .£200,000 to build a sea wall 440 yards in length, whole length to be 1760 yards, and to cost from .£750,000 to a million pounds. To pay the interest, the whole of the Taranaki county is mortgaged. Every settler is liable for a rate of a shilling in the pound. The Harbor Board at the present time takes 25 per cent, of the net proceeds of the sale of the coast lands, and is to have 25 per cent, net proceeds of the sale of the Waimate Plains.

Now, in the face of the present circumstances, it behoves us to petition Parliament relative to the injustice to this district, and in fact to the whole of the colony, except a few square miles around New Plymouth, if this iniquitous act is, in the face of present circumstances, allowed to continue in force.

In the first place, when all land sales were placed under the consolidated revenue of the colony, it was distinctly stated that the various per centages for education, forming district roads, &c, should come out of the. land sales of the district, after all expenses of survey, cost of acquiring the land, &c, have been paid. And I maintain the 25 per cent, of the proceeds of land sales of the Taranaki provincial district, instead of being the net proceeds of the sale of land, is a fifth charge under the Consolidated Revenue Act, and not the first charge it is now made. For the last six years, the land sales in the Taranaki district have not paid the survey expenses, which have been made up out of Treasury bills paid -by the whole colony ; and yet, in the face of it, the New Plymouth Harbor Board have been receiving JS2S out of every ,£IOO worth of land sold, or, if you like it better, ss. in the <£.

With regard to the Waimate Plains, every penny of the proceeds of their sale has been swallowed up in survey, defence, and public works expenditure ; and I maintain it would be a great injustice to this district and the colony generally if, in the face of this expenditure, 25 per cent, of the land sales of the Waimate plains should be given to the Harbor Boaid of New Plymouth to throw into the sea somewhere in the neighborhood of the Sugar Loaves.

I am firmly convinced that not one of our three Taranaki members believes in his heart that a harbor will ever be constructed, or even that the .£200,000 will ever be spent in harbor works; and yet, in the face of it, thousands of pounds are being dribbled away to satisfy the insatiable cravings of the New Plymouth people for the expenditure of public moneys in their immediate district. — I am, &c, Colonist. P.S. — It may not be generally known to intending settlers on the Waimate Plains that the New Plymouth Harbor Board have power to levy a rate of one shilling in the pound on any lands across the Waingongoro river, without their having any voice in the matter. This amount added to the already large taxation, both in property and land taxes, will be a serious item staring an intending purchaser in the face.