NELSON HARBOUR MATTERS!

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 6 February 1928, Page 2

NELSON HARBOUR MATTERS!

(To the'Editor)

Sir,—After 14 years as a representative on this Board I naturally have a keen interest in the success of tho harbour and a fair knowledge of the work done, and the work necessary to be done yet. • It appears to me- that there/ is only: one of two courses open id the 'Board, and they must either let things go back so that 'what might cost, sav, £IOO now, may cost £IOOO, or if injury to the district is considered probably a great deal more. The other course is to Keep on steadily improving the harbour, wharves, etc., and keeping them in good order. The Board has striven for years to get Horne liners to call at Nelson, and have so far been successful, but there is still more dredging, etc., to be done before it is safe. Fruitgrowers and country ratepayers and their representatives realise the advantages of the, direct freight,, but they do not seem to realise what it would mean if one of the overseas vessels touched lx)ttom, or met with any slight accident. Tt would probably mean a largo expenditure, and years before confidence would be restored. Wellington has always wished that the direct boats should not come to Nelson, and they would then have their chance of preventing it. : On the Harbour Board, as on other local bodies, there are men who earnestly do the ratepayers' work as if it were their own. Again there are others who each month attend the meetings and that is about all, as they do not appear to have any businesslike grasp of the necessary work required to be done or the necessity of having to do it. I was surprised at the last meeting of the Board to see the opposition to again collecting the rate which if it had not been remitted last year could probably have been remitted altogether in a cobplo of years without injury to the district. Country ratepayers seem quite to appreciate direct, freights, b'ut how they think it is to be obtained without expenditure I do not know, as wharves, harbour, etc., will certainly not keen themselves in proper order. After all, what is the rate compared with the benefit—"a sprat' to catch a whale"—Wellington has an improvement rate of Is 6d per ton in addition to tho other charges. Everyone dislikes paying a rate and the members of the Harbour Board, who are very properly advocating collecting it again, dislike it quite as much as those who are opposing it; but they probably have a deeper and clearer sense of the necessity of it, and of the total interest of the ratepayers they represent.

When they consider that the harbour, wharf, and sheds at Mapua, with all improvements, have only cost them l-sth of a penny in the pound, or one penny and two-thirds spread over K) years, I think they will not grudge paying the rate for another year or two, especially when they consider that the property, worth upwards of £200,000 in a few years will be their own bought and paid for.—l am etc.,

H. P. WASHBOURN. . Port Nelson, 3rd February.