PUBLIC MEETINGS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR.
j Sir, — There is a petition going round for signature, calling a public meeting, to take into consideration, amongst other items, the advisability of petitioning the House to revoke the Taranaki harbor endowment. Public meetings are generally unjust, because the sympathies of the public are appealed to, and there is not sufficient time given for a calm deliberation of the weighty subjects brought forward. Under these circumstances, I think it not out of place to review the solid advantages that the successful completion of a harbor at Taranaki would secure to this district, leaving out Taranaki. I, of course, conceive that a harbor cau be successfully made, because Sir J. Coode, the most eminent marine engineer in England, has said so. A harbor at Taranaki means, that whatever the settlers chose to cultivate in this, the most prolific district in the country, can be placed on board ship, and consigned to any part of the known world, at an average of about 11s per ton. Contrast this with the prices that the settlers have had to pay for carriage even to Patea. Let the settlers in this district think of the large amount paid by them in carriage for the last nine years, and then put it against the probable tax on the Waimate Plains — a tax that will, probably, never be put in force j for the harbor once started will, to a certainty, become a success, which will brine: this magnificent district within a few miles of first-class water carriage, and will treble the value of the land from Taranaki to Carlyle. This county iB eminently suited for potatoes, beet, &c, in addition to the production of tallow, hides, and live stock, which at present are heavily handicapped for the want of cheap water carriage. Asking once again for the settlers to calmly consider, before coming to hasty conclusions, on the vetoing of a work ,of such momentous consideration to us and our children, — I am, &c,
Thought,
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HNS18800619.2.16
Bibliographic details
Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 20, 19 June 1880, Page 3
Word Count
338PUBLIC MEETINGS. Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 20, 19 June 1880, Page 3
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