TARANAKI PROVINCIAL DISTRICT HARBOR.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 16, 5 June 1880, Page 4

TARANAKI PROVINCIAL DISTRICT HARBOR.

TO THT. EDITOR OF THE STAtt. Sir, — The arrival of the plans of another new scheme for making a harbor in New Plymouth, and the publication of Sir J. Coode's report upon the matter, in conjunction with the meeting of Parliament, bring prominently before the public in the provincial district of Taranaki the question of harbor accommodation, and the disposal of the money raised for the purpose for the Taranaki district. Not long sine*, at a public meeting held in the Oddfellows' Hall, in the town of New Plymouth, it was unanimously resolved that it was advisable that the General Government should take charge of the matter, which really was as much as to say that the people at present entitled to select a board to manage the harbor funds were not capable of choosing fit persons. Looking nft the matter from an outside point of view, considering the sort of •craze under which the board was •elected which reinstated Mr. Irvine as engineer, the proceedings of the board •during a portion of the last two years, the expensive works initiated and carTied on, but now recently stopped in ■consequence of change of plans, the numerous plans which have been suggested, and the suggestions still being made (for I see a new authority upon the subject has recently come forward) the resolution of the public meeting appears to be a wise one. Since the people of New Plymouth have unanimously come to the conclusion which they have done, and keeping in view the original intention of the scheme, namely, providing harbor accommodation for the Taranaki provincial district, the whole question relating to the administration of the harbor funds seems open for consideration. The JNew Plymouth people are divided in opinion as to the site of the harbor in the neighborhood of New Plymouth, and I think I may say the remaining portion of the population of the provincial district, excepting those interested in the Town of New Plymouth, are almost unanimous that the neighborhood of the Town of New Plymouth is quite unsuitable for a harbor, and those who do not go quite so far agree that it is inexpedient under present circumstances to expend so large a sum of money to effect so little, for I think I saw in the Taranaki News not long since, that if .£280,000 were expended the work would not afford shelter for the Taiaroa steamer, and that boating would still be necessary. Practical engineers have, however, expressed the opinion that a harbor might be made for about five millions of money. The harbor staff at present consists of a harbor master and signalman, at a cost of about dBSOO, and the revenue of the Harbor Board is somewhere about one-third or one-fourth of th? t sum. How, then, is the Harbor Board to meet its liabilities when in addition to the «£SOO they have about «.,* ;._',ooo a year to pay for interest. My. Dingle is very properly protesting against the payment of the current expenses of the harbor staff out of loan. Up to the present time, the Harbor Board has expended in surveys, experiments on Paritutu, railway cuttings, plant, and for the engineer's trip to Europe, in round numbers, from ,£-25,000- to *830,000, and practically nothing is done beyond instructing the Harbor Board in the art of what "An Old Colonist " describes as " sitting listlessly on the beach, casting expensive pebbles into the sea." Compare this with what has been done at the mouth of the Patea river, with an expenditure of, I believe, less than .£IO,OOO. Now, this small sum has opened the river to a better class of vessels, and every stone which is laid is telling in the improvement of the channel. If similar works were carried on at Waitara, they would probably be followed by like beneficial results. This being done, with the railway completed, the whole of the counties of Taranaki and Patea would have ports open for traffic, both north to Auckland, and south to Wellington, for stock, without encountering the dangers of rounding Cape Egmont. There is no doubt it is convenient for the whole district to keep the communication with ocean steamers open through New Plymouth, and an improvement upon the present primitive plan is desirable ; and whatever may be the requirements of New* Plymouth in the remote future, there is scarcely any doubt that a good jetty off the town near which steamers could be moored, and on which passengers and goods could be landed, would be more beneficial to the present generation of New Plymouth than the proposed operations of the Harbor Board. A large portion of the funds are to be recouped from the sale of land between Waingongoro and Stony rivers, and it seems hard upon intending settlers in that locality that the purchase money paid by them for their lands, and a tax of one shilling in the pound on these lands, should go in a fruitless attempt to make a harbor at New Plymouth. It would be far more reasonable to make Opunake available for coasting trade, which it is generally believed could be done for a comparatively small outlay. If

the funds at present available for harbor accommodation for the Provincial district of Taranaki were apportioned to the construction of a jetty off the town of New Plymouth, the improvement of the Waitara river, the protection of Opunake, and the improvement of the Patea river, a much greater amount of good would be accomplished than by useless efforts to construct a harbor in the neighborhood of New Plymouth. The inhabitants of the provincial district of Taranaki, not excepting the townspeople of New Plymouth, would do well to petition the General Assembly to pass an Act for allotting the present available funds to the several works above mentioned. If this were done, it would tend to remove the feeling that the present wasteful and useless expenditure at the Sugar Loaves is a cruel injustice to the whole of the inhabitants who do not directly benefit by furnishing supplies or labor for the present works. — I am, &c,

Taranaki.