THE HARBOUR BOARD AND ITS BORROWING POWERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIV, Issue 4748, 3 February 1877, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE HARBOUR BOARD AND ITS BORROWING POWERS.

TO Tl£E EDITOR. ; "There's none so blind as those who won't see."— Old Saw. Sir,—Often has the Chairman of the Harbour Board told an admiring public of the soundness of the Board's credit, and thus aided in that borrotriag for reproductive works, which the Board, are acting wisely in pursuing. The damper he was prepared with on the majority deciding to deepen the dock, shows what keen opposition the alterations may look for. Why did not the chairman oppose the use of the money which wasi borrowed to build the dock, and to complete the dock, in reclamations not provided for by Act, in post and rail fences and atone walls, to keep up banks ? I take the works at present being carried ont around the Beach Road, as the best work the Board ha 3 undertaken. Look at your shipwrights, boat-builders, ship-smiths, block-makers, boiler-makers, and other trades immediately connected with shipping. They areatpre3enfc jammed up in every holo-and-corner around the water frontage. If they are dealt liberally with and granted leases, they must settle on the reclaimed land around the dock. I shall bo surprised if the whole of the extensive frontage is not occupied within a few months arteritis finished. ■

My former letters have never been on the cost of the dock, only on its usefulness, but if my memory does not fail me, the Board has a large sum of money at their command, which is reserved for an upright stone wall in a line with the dock's mouth and the watermen's steps.- Would not a plank and pile facing be sufficient ,for the present? Good totara would last 20 years; and by that time the Board would be in a position to put in a stone frontage. About f 15,000 will be required to make the present contemplated alterations. I maintain" that the whole of the works at present under construction will bo reproductive, and one is necessary to the other. Without the dock what is the use of the reclamation ? And without the reclamation what is tfce use of the dock ? One is necessary to the other. Look at the barren waste of reclamation inside of the railway on the Parnell road, almost useless and profitless as regards revenue. Yet, if 1 am not mistaken, the dock money was used for that. There is the whole of the foreshore of the North Shore, and other valuable endowments belonging to the Board, which could be offered as security for means for the completion of the works. I hold it to be the dnty of the Board to employ to its proper legal object the money they borrowed for the building of the dock. If it has been applied to other purposes, that cannot excuse them in leaving such a structure as a dock unsatisfactory and they must arrange to carry out this work properly. If everything is fair and above board, and no underhand working attempted, Mr. Whitaker will not hesitate in giving his sanction as representative of the Government to the borrowing of the funds necessary to fulfil the work. That sanction once obtained, the money will be forthcoming. I£ not—but I cannot conceive why not—they should sacrifice the long stone wall I have referred to, and be content with a wood facing, and deepen the dock according to the resolutions agreed to last Friday.

But the greatest trouble among tHose who oppose the dock deepening appears to be how to get a ship in the dock. Quite a hubbub is made about it by the ancient mariners, yclepfc captains, on the Wharf. Well, let us humour these respectable old salts, and make an opening in the Wharf, to be crossed by a bridge, and let them haul a ship straight out. Thus the channel to be dredged would not be across the tide. In conclusion, I would remark to the gentlemen who formed the majority last Friday—Continue steadfast in your determination, circumvent all attempts at " tiddlywinking," of which we have too much, and in a few years the people of Auckland Trill thank you for saving them from one of the greatest blunders that has been committed in harbour affairs.—l am, &e., Shipwright. Auckland, February Ist, 1877-