EXPLANATION SOUGHT

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 119, 16 April 1930, Page 2

EXPLANATION SOUGHT

OMISSION FROM AGENDA. Seeking an explanation of the reason why the matter of his communications on the question of Wellington wharfages did not appear on the agenda paper, Mr M. A. Eliott forwarded a fetter to the monthly meeting of the Palmerston North Chamber of Commerce yesterday afternoon inquiring how the omission had occurred. “I am in receipt of the agenda paper for a meeting to be held on the lsth inst,” wrote Mr Eliott, “and I am surprised to find that no reference is made to the letters which I wrote to the secretary of the chamber, dated March 20 and 28, in connection with Wellington Harbour Board wharfages. I shall be glad to receive a satisfactory explanation as to the reason of the omission ” One of the letters to which Mr Eliott referred was as follows: —“I notice that in the report of the meeting of your chamber held on March _ 18, when a list of reductions in Wellington Harbour Board wharfages mentioned in my letter was road, one of your members, Mr A. P. Stuart, is reported to have stated that the bulk of the reductions was on exports, and that the importer had to pay three times the price for the same service. In this connection I beg to point out that the estimated cost of 1 the reductions on inward wharfages on general cargo, reduced from 4s to 3s 9d ]>er ton, will equal £7849, also that- the total estimated cost of the reductions on both inward and outward cargo and harbour master’s fees amounts to £16,880, so that tho reduction on inward wharfage is approximately 60 per cent of the total reduction.”

The chairman (Mr M. H. Oram) stated that the letter mentioned, with another covering one, had been inadvertently omitted from the agenda paper. The secretary was instructed to write explaining the circumstances. Information having been received from the Auckland, Christchurch, Timaru and Dunedin Harbour Boards bearing on wharfage charges, tho matter was referred to Mr Stuart to report to tho next meeting.