WESTPORT HARBOUR BOARD

Marlborough Express, Volume LIII, Issue 273, 20 November 1919, Page 6

WESTPORT HARBOUR BOARD

SERIOUS FINANCIAL POSITION.

WESTPORT, Nov 17 , Something like a sardonic smile passed over, the countenances of members of the Westport Harbor Board to-day, \when it received a telegram from the Treasury stating that the Government was granting it a "loan" of £30,000 to relieve it ot its financial difficulties, and asking the Board to arrange securities. The financial difficulties are brought about by the Government under the Finance Act, 1905, whereby it has confiscated something in tihe vicinity of £6Q 000 of the Board's revenue. It has compelled the Board to meet all the war charges and increased costs in running the harbor and railways out of its ordinary revenue and taken the £60,000 at the expense of the upkeep of the harbor and compelled., tihe;.- Board to curtail all the works. ' Attempts to get the Government to repeal the iniquitous clauses of the Act have failed, and the Westport Harbor Board is faced with the most serious financial crisis in the whole of its history. i