THE NEW PLYMOUTH HARBOR.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 20, 19 June 1880, Page 3

THE NEW PLYMOUTH HARBOR.

The following letter, signed "Vox," appeared in the Taranaki Herald of Monday : —

Sir, — What are all the country settlers about whilst all the muddle is going on in connection with the New Plymouth Noharbor? Are they all asleep? If so, I have an idea that ere long the Harbor Tax Collector will give such a knock that will waken them — then we shall hear such a wail, far and near. " Who'd have thought it ?' Well, it strikes me that anyone might have not only thought it, but known it, who had not really been asleep since the whole thing started, or been misled by the very plausible opinions of our business men in the town of New Plymouth ; men who have a good chance of making a good thing out of such a vast expenditure. But I think the time will soon arrive when, what between Road Board rates, County rates, Property Tax, and Harbor Tax, the settlers in the out-districts must see the neccessity for some alteration in the state of affairs. The present style simply means that only a few will be able to stand it. In the present depressed state of the markets, the land cannot possibly bear the strain to be put on it; therefore, itgmeans ruin to the hard-working and struggling settler, who has hitherto been exerting himself to the utmost to gain a decent living, and pay his way in an hon st manner. Is it likely that with the means at our command we will get a harbor at New Plymouth ? Common sense would answer " No," most emphatically. Whr.t, then, is the best course to take under the circumstances ? Why, let what has been thrown away lie buried — " Dead, but not forgotten " — and at once determine to stop any further expenditure in that direction, and by keeping a complete record of the past proceedings, they may be handed down to posterity, properly labelled " Taranaki's lolly" as a caution for future generations.