Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXXV, Issue 161, 18 July 1901, Page 2

MR. EUGENE O'CONOR AS A LATE l ADVISEH. . _ i 1 The engineer entrusted with the preliminary work in connection with the proposed improvement of Nelson harbour is now busily preparing hia working , plans for approval by the Government, and on the adoption of those plans the ' issue whether the people will sanction or ° reject a loan will be s übmitted and decided. Tlie basis on which the loan is to be voted ? for or against is a channel in the Boulder \ Bank to take the place of the present entrance. The feasibility of tho scheme has been reported on by two recognised engineering authorities who are nofc by n any means professional friends, as recent correspondence abunduntly proves. . Yet both agree that a channel in the Boulder Bank is the only permanent solution of the problem of Nelson Harbour improvement at the least cost of future „ maintenance. One of the engineers sug- „ jested a channel further east tlian the other a& bis principal scheme ; but his al- p fcerziative proposal indicated a channel so near the locality fixed in the scheme t ?< which is to form the basis of operations p if the work is sanctioned thafc there was ' little to choose between the two pro- P posed open in gs. „, * * * , The question of fche present entrance to 0 f ths harbour has been argued and thresh- 7 ed out long ago. The issue of the Boulder Bank scheme was clearly put before the people of both city and country, I ■$. md fche election of the first Harbour I f e , Board was held. Theto were numerous I - m \ jandida.es and a wide range of selection. I'he voters had placed unimsfcakeably be- < 'ore them fche project of a new channel n^ ;hrough the Boulder Bank, and they •"*■' lected a Board, the majority on which tand pledged to the Boulder Bank jV h cheme. This is the position at the pre- » -r-

enfc moment. This morning, however, ' Ir Eugene O'Conor, a former politician ,nd a bygone political factor, suddenly nters the arena of discussion and in an >pen letter to the Harbour} Board invites he members to stultify both themselves tnd their supporters by rejecting the 3oulder Bank channel, the advice of two sngineers, the conclusions of a discussion >f years, and their very raisoii d'etre n order to adopt Mr O'Conor' s notion ;hat the present entrance is the best of ill possible entrances. # # # To say the least of it, the writer's abso.ute silence during the long period the whole question was under debate, and bis abstention from candidature for a 3eat on the Board, put him out of court, a,nd render his advice absolutely unsought if not irrelevant. If he holds strong views on the subject, or if he has a brief for the faction opposed to harbour improvement on the basis of the reports of the two engineers, or if he represents those who are hostile to the inclusion of Motueka in the Nelson Harbour Board district, why did he not put it to the touch to discover his strength or weakness, and seek a candidature for the Board, as others did ? What is his locus standi now ? The fact that in the past he was a politician of some eminence does not make him a political factor now. At least, he did not test his strength as a Harbour Board' candidate with strong views that the present entrance should be adhered to in preference to a channel in the Boulder Bank. Moreover, however eminent a political factor he may havo been, what makes him an engineering authority sufficient to override the two other engineering authorities on whose independent reports the Harbour Board is proceeding to seek the means of improving the harbour by means of a channel in the Boulder Bank ? # # # Mr. O'Conor, as a private individual, in common with other private individuals with a taste for amateur engineering, has a perfeot right to his own opinions, and an equally perfect right to air them. But why has he come out so late in the day, and then not as one prepared to stand or fall while actively putting forward his views, but as a self- constituted advising engineer ? It is obvious from the result of the Harbour Board election that the members of the Board cannot accept his advice without breaking their pledges and stultifying themselves, and hence his entrance into the arena of debate can be calculated only to obscure the issues and affect the vote on the loan proposals if he have strength and influence enought to do so. If he Lave not, then he is merely beating the air and writing because of an attack of the cacocthes m-ribendi from which retired politicians so often suffer. # * * As to the merits or demerits of Mr O'Conor's advocacy of the present harbour entrance, in his interference-with-nature bogey, and his general disagreement from the recommendations and convictions of the two engineers on who3e examination the Boulder Bank channel is proposed, he simply enunciates at very considerable length as something to him quite a noveJ discovery a theory that has not only been exploded but which as a matter for debate has been discussed ad nan-wain long ago. The self-constituted adviser to the Harbour Board, therefore, merely joins the ranks of those against whom we have frequently warned the community viz. the partisans of rival schemes of public progress and improvement who are responsible in so many places in and out of the colony for indefinite delay and postponement by sacrificing the common good to their own own particular opinions. * # * If Mr O'Conor has entered the field as an opponent to the harbour loan proposals to be shortly submitted to the ratepayers, well and good. We do not know whether he is strong enough to influence the vote, or whether he is only one of the few who cannot help airing their engineering notions on all possible occasions and who do not count much as factors of public opinion. But if by the raising of such an issue as the present entrance against a Boulder Bank channel Mr O'Conor and others succeed in having the loan negatived, they will be responsible for the indefinite postponment of improvement and progress. Mr O'Conor has taken up his position too lute. He should have contributed to the discussion at the time tho question of rival schemes was before the public. Instead, he has waited till the final formula before the loan proposals are submitted, and he raises his issue of the present entrance against ;i Boulder Bank channel at the very hour when the Engineer whose report has been adopted after independent criticism by a rival is preparing his working plans for the Boulder Bank entrance. Apart from all other results, if Mr O'Conor succeeds in his efforts to frustrate the objects of the loan, he will be responsible for an utterly useless expenditure of ,£6OO which must be paid to Mr Reynolds by con' tract whether the Boulder Bank scheme be rejected or otherwise. This is about all Mr O'Conor can hope to achieve, for he certainly will not build up anything, whaetver he may contrive to pull down. He should have come into the discussion at the proper time, or stood out of it altogether. * * # Of course our only reason for criticising his attitude is the presumption for the sake of argument that he is still a political factor sufficiently strong to influence votes. As such, he should have put forward his views and sought election or rejection as a candidate for the Harbour Board. He permitted the opportunity to pass, hence bis present manifesto is as inexplicable as it is ill-rimed. As to the members of the Harbour Board, they are not likely to alter their opinions now, and the majority and minority on that body will remain unchanged by Mr O'Conor's exhortation. But there is a clanger that, unless Mr O'Conor's tardy advocacy .of a scheme which has been completely set aside is fully answered, he and others may diffuse and obscure the issues just sufficiently to undo the work of months and years, and cause the rejection of the loan by an unsatisfactorily narrow majority.