NEW PLYMOUTH HAKBOR LOAN BILL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume VIII, Issue 1355, 10 July 1886, Page 2

NEW PLYMOUTH HAKBOR LOAN BILL.

The passing of the second reading of the above Bill was a surprise to most people in this district. It was carried, however, by so large a majority that it is clear that Parliament prefers to trust to the result of a poll oF ratepayers, rather than to petitions, protests, resolutions and counterresolutions of active supporters or of opponents of such a measure. The early part of the debate appears in full as a supplement with this issue, and our readers will, we think, find the pros and cons set forth very clearly therein. The action of the Harbor Board on Wednesday, judged by the new light shed by the passing of this Bill, seems decidedly hasty and premature. Should the Bill go through Committee, and should it also successfully slip through the difficult passage of the Legislative Council, the board would very probably see fit to alter its decision of last meeting, aud decide first to place the loan question before the ratepayers ; then, if it should be rejected, as a last resource to make use of such of the money in hand as is legally available for extending the works. It would not be by any means the first occasion on which the board has seen fit to beat a retreat more hasty

than dignified from an untenable position which they had too hastily taken up.