NEW PLYMOUTH HARBOUR BOARD.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXVII, Issue 13, 16 January 1891, Page 2

NEW PLYMOUTH HARBOUR BOARD.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — There is at pre3eat going the rouncU of ths Press a paragraph from the Dunedia ~__ ! Star as follows : — "The discovery that the New Zealand Government knew of the bankrupt condition of the New Plymouth Harbor Board a year before it publicly transpired, and actually concealed the fact and paid the coupons, m order that the conversion of the 1889. £2,700,000 loan might not bo prejudiced, has utterly astonished the London financiers." There is little doubt the London financiers were greatly annoyed, but why, unless they took the New Zealand people for idiot 3, they sbould be astonished it is difficult to understand. Doubtless they were very angry. Had they known it m time they oould have manipulated such information to the advantage of themselves. It is the practice m the London market to take advantaga of every circumstance which can bs used to beat down ths price of anything offered them for sale, and for the London financiers to discover when it was too late that they had missed so go d a chanca -would be, to say the least, mortifying. Now, as a matter of fact, the solvency or insolvency of the New Plymouth Harbor Board has really nothing to do wjth the solvency of the Colony, it does nor really affect such a body as the New Plymouth Municipality, and with the fall knowledge of this, and knowing what use might probably be made of it, it was not only wise and good policy on the part of the Government to pravent thi3 circumstance being advertised, but an imperative duty which the Government owed to the Colony. If lam not mistaken the action of the Government m concealing this circumstance, and m assisting the New Plymouth Harbor Board, was upon the recommendation of a Committee of the House of Representatives. There is little doubt that had the Board failed to meet its liabilities before the conversion had been completed, the defalcation would have been used to the disadvantage of the credit of the Colony, and notwithstanding the unreasonableness of the matter might have so operated upon the imagination of the money lenders as to depreciate the Colonial stocks by a large amount. How large that amount might have been is easily seen since only one per cent, on £2,700,000 amounts to £27,000. Knowing how intensely the Landon fioancers desire to get rich, and how they are accustomed to make use of any circumstance however slight m supporting their own interests, it is not difficult to imagine how very angry they would be when they discovered that such a chance had been I missed. And -what was 1 a subject of so | much grief to them ought to be proportionately a subject of congratulation so far as the Colony is concerned; and instead of being regarded &3 a matter detrimental to the Colony, the highest praise i 3 due to - the careful foresight displayed by the Colonial Treasurer m preventing a catastrophe which would have operated so much to the disadvantage of the Colony.; not because it would have been a matter really affecting the value of the colonial securities, but because the information might and probably -would have been nsed for tho purpose of depreciating their value. It is, I think, much to be regretted that for party purposes some members of the Opposition last session attempted to make political capital oat of the transaction. — lain, etc., Observes.