HAWERA AND THE NEW PLYMOUTH HARBOR

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 29, 21 July 1880, Page 4

HAWERA AND THE NEW PLYMOUTH HARBOR

(From the Taranaki News.)

New Plymouth, as regards its harbor scheme, is subjected just now to a considerable amount of disingenuous opposition from a few noisy busy-bodies having a personal interest in Waitara and Hawera. As our readers are aware, a public meeting bas been held at Hawera, at which some incorrect statements were made, a memorial was forwarded to Government, in which also there are inaccuracies, and a long letter has appeared in the New Zealand Herald, in 'which a specious attempt is made to exalt Waitara in the eyes of the Auckland merchants, and to disparage New Plymouth and its harbor scheme. We admit that the New Plymouth harbor scheme is not the best or the most economical design that might have been obtained within the funds at the •command of the Board in making use of the natural advantages of the Sugarloaf Rocks, but those advantages the people of New Plymouth and the New Plymouth Harbor Board were hindered from taking by the action of the Government engineers, Messrs. Carruthers and Blackett, who designed a harbor near to, but detached from, the Sugarloaves, and whose design was slavishly followed by Sir John Coode. Apart from all this, however, imperfect as it will be, the New Plymouth harbor will be a more beneficial work to the district and to the colony than any amount of improvement to Waitara, Opunake, or Patea river mouths. There can be no doubt that the Taranaki roadstead is capable of being converted into a magnificent harbor, and such a harbor would certainly tend more to the benefit of "Waitara and Hawera than any profit they might possibly receive from an immunity from the harbor tax or from the whole of the land fund of the district being devoted to general purposes. The present harbor scheme is the initiatoiy stage in this great work, and it is only in connection with this initiatory stage that either Waitara or Hawera need to trouble themselves. The Harbor Board is empowered to borrow and to expend the sum of £200,000 on the work, and in order to pay interest and sinking fund thereon it is endowed under the fourth, tenth, and twcltth clauses of the Financial Arrangements Act, 1876, with one-fourth of the land revenue of the provincial district, the New Plymouth Harbor Board Ordinance Amendment Act, 1876, directing that such land revenue shall be set aside by the Board for the payment of interest and sinking fund on any loan obtained by the Board, and for no other purpose. Taking into consideration that a very large portion of the land of the provincial district is yet unsold, there is every reason to believe that the Board will be able to discharge the whole of its liabilities by this means, and possibly also to extend its operations. But in view of the event of the failure of the land fund, the Board has the supplementary power given to it of imposing a rate for the purpose over a certain district, not exceeding one shilling in the pound on the rateable value of the landed property therein. Under no circumstances can the rate be levied on Eawera, the southern boundary of the rating district being the Waingongoro river ; but Hawera shrinks from the consequences of the lands north of that river being very remotely liable to a temporary tax not exceeding one shilling in the pound. What injury the endowment of the Board with one-fourth of the land fund can do to Waitara or Hawera we fail to perceive. According to the last Financial Statement, it is the purpose of the Government to repeal that portion of the ■ Financial Arrangements Act which authorises the subsidies and the grant of 20 per cent, of the land fund to counties. It is true that the proposals include the payment of =6150,000 per annum from the Land Fund to the Board of Public Works, but this would be but little affected by the payment of one-quarter of the land fund of this provincial district to the New Plymouth Harbor Board. Under these circumstances we cannot see that either Waitara or Hawera are likely to lose anything by the New Plymouth harbor arrangements. It seems to us that the desire of our neighbors is of a suicidal character ; for if the harbor works are abandoned, all the money that has been expended on them will be utterly wasted, and the colony will necessarily be impoverished to that extent. Moreover, the expenditure of a quarter of the land fund so near to them as New Plymouth is more likoly to benefit them than if it wore expended gonerally in the charges set against the land fund in the estimates. This opposition is but another exhibition of that which is unhappily so prevalent amongst vs — intense selfishness, carelessness respecting who sinks so long as we swim, an ignoring of all considerations respecting the public good, and a general game, of grab. It is a repetition of the old story of the settler who refused to pay road rates because the road merely came up to his gate and did not pass through his land, there being no available country beyond him. Our Hawera neighuors endeavor to make capital out of the assertion that the Harbor Board have expended a large sum of money on a scheme which they have abandoned. This is not true. There has been no change in the harbor scheme reeoin-

mended by Sir John Coode but this, that instead of the mole beiug built of loose rubble, it is to be built of concrete. The lines of the works are precisely the same as they were at the beginning, the preliminary works are as necessary as ever, the same stone for the works is to be used as that pointed out in Sir John Coode's first report, the only difference being that instead, of being formed into a sprawling heap, the stone will be mixed with saud and cement, and will be shaped into sightly and serviceable cubes of concrete, which will be built up into a perpendicular wall, answering the twofold purpose of a breakwater and a quay. Possibly to a pettifogger there may appear to be'a breach of the letter of the law in the Board ordering plant for a concrete structure instead of enginery for a rubble mound. But, in reference to this, it may be observed that Sir John Coode expressly providpd in his first report that his design should be carried out only after the rock had been tested and had been found to be fit for the intended purpose. The rock was tested in accordance with his instructions, and was found unfit for rubble work. This matter was reported to Sir John Coode, and he has accepted the facts, and has designed a concrete section in lieu of a rubble section, and the Board have done what any other board, desirous of faithfuly and fully performing their functions, would have done — -have ordered plant to suit the new section. As the Board have not abandoned Sir John Coode's scheme, in connection with which they were empowered to raise the loan, but have simply had it modified out of sheer necessity, there is no need for fresh legislation on the subject, the Governor in Council having power under the Harbors Act, 1878, to sanction such modification. We may further state, to allay our neighbors' fears, that the Board are only empowered by the Act to expend .£200,000 ; beyond that they cannot go, unless after the payment of the loan the quarter of the land fund may be still accruing to them, or revenues may arise to them from the iron-sand or other endowments.