THE HARBOR BILLS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 9 October 1913, Page 4

THE HARBOR BILLS.

As was anticipated, the House had an evening out with the harbor Bills, and in respect of the Wanganui a dead- ' lock occurred on a technical point which was only settled after several hours of discussion. The one-rate-payer-one-vote was substituted for a sliding scale of voting, and no doubt this will be the settled principle for the future. It cannot do very much harm in -cases where a harbor district is mainly composed of a rural population; but there certainly is a good deal in the argument that where the harbor town is so large that it practically dominates the poll, there is risk of a burden being put on rural property by the voting strength attached to small town sections in respect of which the liability will be nominal and altogether outweighed by expectations of direct personal benefit. But the greatest interest attached to the boundary question in respect of the Wanganui and Patea districts, owing to the attacks made on certain members of the House, one of whom was Mr Pearce, member for Patea. It was suggested, if not directly alleged, that he had used his position to get a property of his cut out of the Wangamii rating area, but the explanation given by Mr Veitch, member for Wanganui, cleared up the matter. Mi* Pearce's property was excluded as being part of a considerable area which an independent commissioner, Mr W. S. Short, held was not properly included in the Wanganui rating district. The . Board again included it, and the aggrieved persons petitioned. The promoters of the Bill did not contest tho .

petition by bringing forward evidence, I and apparently Mr Veitch, who was in j charge of the measure, agreed that it would be proper to exclude the area. Then the question arose as to whether it should not be included in the Patea district, and Mr Pearce did not object to this so far as he was personally concerned, but he could not speak for other persons affected who had no legal notice of the proposal. Doubt was expressed by some members when the matter came before the House, whether in the circumstances the land could be included in the Patea Bill without fresh notices being given, but the Chairman of Committees ruled that this could be done, and the Premier has arranged to see the matter through. So far as the merits of the matter are concerned^ it seems that the disputed area was quite rightly excluded from the Wanganui rating district, and if Mr Pearce had not been a member of the House, probably no question would have arisen. It was quite proper in the- circumstances that the matter should, be threshed out in public, for Parliament cannot be too careful, but in the light of day exaggerations and innuendoes disappear.