THE HARBOR QUESTION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 26, 10 July 1880, Page 4

THE HARBOR QUESTION.

TO THE EDITOK OF THE STAR.

Sir, — I have just met with the article in the Taranaki News of the 26th June, commenting on the movement here respecting the New Plymouth harbor works. The article is instructive, and from the known connection with that journal of the late acting chairman of the Harbor Board, it is to be presumed that the information is trustworthy. The News says, 4t The estimates of Sir John Coode are only for a portion of the work." ■" That the loan is only for a portion." *'That there is reason for believing that Sir John Coode's estimate of was wrong;" and as "regards the levying of the harbor tax, there is but a very remote possibility." The remote possibility is one of the things which the settlers here most dread ; th*y do not regard this as a remote possibility, if the Board is allowed to proceed in squandering the funds as they have hitherto done. The fashion of disposing of Crown land on tho deferred payment system is increasing, and instead of the Harbor Buard having at once oue-fourth of tho price at which Crown land is sold, the Board will only have onefuurth of the interest annually on the purchase money, the capital never coming in. This will very much disturb the calculation, and render the imposition of the tax most probable. The News informs us that when Sir John Coode's plans, estimated to cost e8280,000, have been carried out, this is only for a portion of the work, and on a previous occasion tlie News infomed its readers thai when these works, costing according to Sir John Coode's estimate, =2280,000.. have been completed, the harboi will not accommodate such a vessel as the Taiaroa, and, in othei words, will only be a boating harbor. The Amount of selfsatisfaction with which the News annouuees the fact that the \7orks can be discontinued as soon as the money is gone, is quite refreshing, giving, us, j it does, the key to the whole proceedings. I have heard ;.t; .t said that the idea in New Plymouth was that it was quite immaterial whether the money was spent in cement blocks to put into the sea, or in a grand scheme for making winter gardens at the summit oi ! Mount Egmont, or any other grand scheme, so long as the money was spent in the neighborhood of New Plymouth. It is a good thing for the people in this district that the News has informed them that 25 pei cent, of the land fund and the harbor tax has been pledged to the British bondholders, aud that it would bn political immorality to deprive them of the security. The people in this county might have committed the wrong without knowing they were doing any harm. I am sure they won't now they know it, for it would be as great a piece of political immorality us that of those who grasped the funds fov the harbor purposes, and as bad as the Harbor Board in abusing their trust by misapplying the money to a purpose not authorized. I am sure the people here would do none of these things. If they had the powev, and could bring any but " puny efforts " to bear, that woult l pv\t»«, stop to the fuvthev misappropriation of public money, they would use the unexpended portion of the loan to purchase the Board's debentures, receive the 25 per cent, of the land revenue to purchase the remainder of the Board's debentures, and the passing of a special Act of the General Assembly to indemnify the members of the Harbor Board against any criminal prosecution for misusing trust funds, or any civil action for the same, and the erection of a monument as a warning to future generations not to commit the same errors; but, sir, unfortunately our efforts are only puny, and we cannot, however much we may desire it, reform the political morals of our neghbors. By-the-by, I see Mr. Waterhouse is asking in the Legislative Council about the illegal expenditure of the New Plymouth Harbor Board, and who tho Government is going to punish for it. This, at all events, is a step in the right direction. — I am, &c,

Observer.