CORRESPONDENCE. AN 'EXPLANATION.

North Otago Times, 6 December 1910, Page 1

CORRESPONDENCE.

AN 'EXPLANATION.

To, the Editor. Sir,—l received a letter (but the writer forgot to siyr his -nam®), want'ing to kjnev,. why I supported the Harbor Board Loan Bill. Allow, me to reply in your columns that I have rot changed my opinion on the original Bill nor the harbor. luiever was against the whole Bill as fai as the 1879 loan was concerned, bjit I objected to the. Board having power to borrow £2:25,000 on a rate of 7-12J in the ,6, the go to the general account, without a proper provision for a sinking fund.. It js true the Board Intended Id nake provision; go did the Board 'in former days, but owing to circumstai.ces over which th-ey had no control, notwithstanding haying a surplus rate of about £3(1,0(10, they went £65,000 behind in the sinking fund, and what- has happened 'before may happen again. I have not the hopeful mind Mr Milligan has when ■he told us.at Tokarahi that the-rate will be reduced to ll'HHtlr.of a penny. It rraj foe shown while the presjnt £000(1 is in feajnd, but if the Board intends dredging an area of 30 acres it will not last long, and after tllat all dredgiingiias to !b|3 done inside' and outside out of revenue.. Then there is the repairing of the breatwater. A sum of £33,000 has already been spent out of £40,000, and a break may occur at any -time) and the £7OOO spent. Then all future repairs will also have to be provided out of revenue. Nor is it likely that the revenue will Increase: the want of wool sales, the tlepth of water, and the'short distance to - deep' water Ports are against us, and then there will always be a great deal of frozen mutton and fat .stock railed .toother :ports, besides time is too' valuable for'the large vessels to visit the smaller port. Then again we cannot' help but see -what the future will be in a few years. Our main lines and some of the branch lines will be run by electricity, which means cheaper haulage on our railways,' Which will •go .against a small port like' Oamaru. Therefore! it will, most likely take all th» revenue to keep the port open in' the 'near future,; and that is tbe reason I was asked by a few ratepayers to give evidtnee before the I Private Bills Committee; not to opl pose,the Bill as a whole, but topro--1 test against our rate "being put to | other purposes than the loan, for J there'wan dinger'that the whole of the rate might have, to be_ ussd after paying interest on useless work in the .harbor. And I am glad to say that the Committee have made it clear that whatever money is borrowed above what, is needed has to be put <to the stakdng£furid, and whatever rate' is levied y$¥ r go the.samo way ; therefore I w|£ in favor .of'the Bill, for the ratepayers! are ' safe•guarded"; that only have to pay the interest;and principal no matter what may .iiappen, and', if the Board can get the';'loan at the price they tell us, our rate will not r be increased, and thai $ what I;b&ve been 'ccfltendingjor the'..whole' oi the time, —I am, etc.," . LOUIS DASLER.