The Star.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XX, Issue 2430, 18 May 1893, Page 2

The Star.

[published daily")

THURSDAY, MAT 18, 1893.

THE HARBOUR RA.TE.

As we have consistently held that attempts to get rid of the Taranaki harbour rate, or to secure relief from its weight by recourse to technicalities, would be dishonest as well as futile, it is scarcely necessary for us to say that we have no sympathy with the Stratford movement, and no confidence that it would be of avail were it successful in the courts. We have no doubt whatever that if it were discovered there was any such technical defect aa is alleged in respect of the issue of the Order-in-Council, Parliament would immediately pass a validating Act. We know that at least one of the present Ministers once went so far as to declare that if the rate proved insufficient it would be the duty of Parliament to increase the rating power. That suggestion was as immoral as any technical attack pf the rating power could be. We denounced it at the tim^, and only quote it to indicate the temper of a Bection of the House on the subject. The claim of the harbor ratepayers for relief resta.pos on narrow technicalities, but on the broad grounds of justice and fair dealing. The land laws have been altered to promote the colonising policy of the colony. It is a policy which we are bound to say has done much for Taranaki as a whole, but the process of chanpingtenure, from cash and deferred payment to perpetual lease, his resulted in diminution for the present of the Harbor Board's revenue. The Crown retains the capital value, and gives the Harbor Board simply a share of the annual income from Crown lands. The result is that while the colony reaps the advantage of retaining the capital value, the Harbor Board suffers a disadvantage inasmuch as it gets but 5 or 6 per cent, of what it should get, and as its engagements are immediate and definite the loss now being sustained can never be recouped. If the anticipated land fund does not come in each year then the ratepayers muet be taxed each year to the limit of their liability to make up the I difference. This they have suffered for several years ; and, supposing, for sake of argument, they continue to pay until the end of the term, the position will then be that they for years will have paid a rate to meet labilities which the land revenue Bhould have borne, and that then at the end of the term the colony will have resumed possession of the endowment it gave to the harbor. That is really the position. By a devious method the cplony is withdrawing the endowment it gave. It is no answer to say that the rents are being paid. The rents given do not represent more than interest on the Board's share of the endowment. If the twenty-five per cent of capital value were given, che Boar 3, we will say for the sake "of argument, might invest it until the loan is due, and get a return equivalent to the present paid share of the rents, and still at the end of the term possess the capital sum. The colony, however, will hold the capital sum, and then when the ratepayers have been bled to meet the Board's liabilities, the colony will remain in possession of the capital. In this connection, it ia worth while, as showing the intention of all parties when the loan was borrowed, to quote the prospectus of the loan issued in London : —

The Tarauaki district contains some of the finest lands in tbe colony, but its progress has hitherto been retarded by the want of harbour-accommodation.

Tbe Government, recognising the necessity and importance of tbis work from a national point of view, have endowed tbe Harbour Board with one-fourth part ot the gross revenue arising from the sale, occupation, or other disposal of tbe waste landß of the Crown within the proviacial district. Tbis subsidy commenced in the year 1875, and the proportion of the proceeds of land-sales so appropriated to the harbor fund has been duly paid by tbe Colonial Treasurer to the credit of tbe Harbour Board with tbe Bank of New Zealand from time to time. Future payments of revenue from tbis source will be set apart in order to provide, in tbe first instance, for interest) and sinking iund.

Tbe area of waste lands at present held by the Crown within tho provincial district consists of about 758,000 acres, representing a valne of about £1,400,000.

Tbe service of tbe lonn is further secured by tbe rating-power vested in the Board to tbe extent of Is in tbe pound upon property witbiu the rating district, the present rateable value of which is £62,559 3s 8:1, and will increase as the settlement extends ; but, as the revenue derivable Jrom tbe before-mentioned endowment is deemed much more tban sufficient for the purpose, no rate has been b truck, nor is it expected that any such rate will be required, No one can read that, especially the words referring to past land sales, and " future revenue from this source," and the references to the improbability of a rate, without admitting that the ratepayers bave a substantial claim to consideration on the broad grounds of equity and good faith which we have referred to.