Readers Write...

Northern Advocate, 1 December 1949, Page 4

Readers Write...

The reply of the Whangarei Harbour Board chairman, (Mr Whimp) to your timely leader, calls for comment. Firstly, he says that it

OIL SITES is not necessary for the

press to criticise local bodies. Well—how else can they be criticised? Then he says that the press should have interviewed him first- I suppose that would be, so that we would read only what suited him. The chairman must not forget that the board comprises more and more state-ap-pointed members and we expect him to be more and more loyal to those members we taxpayers elect. It is not pleasing to see Mr Whimp (who does not mind criticising other members in the press himself) attack fellow members by calling the opinions of Mr W. M. Fraser, a tirade. It seems elementary commonsense, that the opinion and experience of Mr Fraser—whose life’s work has been given to making the Whangarei Harbour what it is from a mangrove creek—should be welcomed and valu-ed-mot insulted.

Home decisions, made by a board of members who are here today and gone tomorrow and often do not know one landmark on our harbour, can do untold harm to the port’s future- We owe your paper thanks for its leader. It is a pity it wasn’t taken in the right spirit, instead of having a rattling effect. Keep the administration of the Harbour Board red, white and blue, Mr Chairman. It is getting slightly pink.—“ANOTHER TAXPAYER.”