HARBOUR IMPROVEMENT.

Northern Advocate, 30 August 1919, Page 4

HARBOUR IMPROVEMENT.

(To the Editor).

felt relieved when Mr A. H. Mason decided to quit th e nel(i oi controversy, having said all that was necessary.

Subsequent events, however, are too much for him. He has a grievance against th e chairman of the board, and one against Mr Jackson, a member of the Borough Council. Mr Jackson, when he found he wasi wrong, took the first opportunity to make his position clear. He now knows that the bill ' must be P^ 64l into law before any improvement to the harbour can be effected. He also knows that the improvements are necessary to the welfare of the town. He does not pose as an engineer, nor sneer at Mr Blair Mason's deputy. On it becoming known that the Onerahi Town Board had issued a circular to all local bodies in the s " trict asking them to support Onerahi's objection to the bill, the chairman of the bpard took the only course ppen to hinv He called them all together, explained his case, and left "the matte r in their hands. He had no cut-and-dried resolutions put into the hands of the meeting, with the result that a spontaneous response came from the conference, and a favourable resolution was carried with only two local bodies' representatives idissenting. The conference had evidently come together to express* their approval of the bill. That done, they were not prepared to waste time in discussing details, which could wait until the board submitted its proposals. Who can say that these men did not realise th e full significance of the matter which they came to support and the obligations which it incurred? They realise that they are being exploited by merchants and companies, and that the middleman hag been fleecing them, They are prepared to get freer access to the markets of the world through their own port. We know that Mr Mason does not reflect the views of the whole of Onerahi, not even that of the chairman of the Town Board, and we know that th e Mayor of Whangarei does not reflect the views of the business men of the town. Mr Dent and Mr Mason ar c entitled to their opinions, and we can only regret that they dp not realise the seriousness of their action should it at all be effective, whiefc it is , hoped it will not be,- —I am, etc. J, D. McKENZIE.