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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7773, 20 October 1886, Page 4

The action of the Harbour Board yesterday, in resolving to request Messrs. Cooper and Sainty to return their pilot licenses, cannot be regarded as other than a very questionable proceeding. No cause was assigned for such a step, and i this same circumstance suggests the conclusion that the Board occupies in this matter very doubtful ground. In fact the advice given by the Board's legal advisers shows that no other conclusion can be come to. An opinion was asked as to the power of the Board to cancel or compel the return of the licenses granted to Messrs. Sainty and Cooper, and the answer was that there was considerable difficulty in giving an opinion, accompanied with the recommendation that the return of the licenses should be requested. Read between the lines this means that the Board have not the power to cancel or compel these pilote to return their licenses so long as the services they are authorised to perform are discharged with fidelity. To suppose otherwise would amount to an absurdity. The reason, therefore, for asking an opinion on this point at all must be sought in the difficulty which the Board appears to have got into by passing over their rights of pilotage to Mr. Compton as managing proprietor of the steam - tug Awhina, in contravention of the provisions of the Act by which the matter is regulated. That at all events is the only construction that can be put upon the words employed by Mr. Niccol yesterday when the question was under discussion. According to his statement the arrangement which the Board appears to have made with Mr. Compton for the employment of the Awhina for the performance of the pilot service, besides not i being in conformity with the Act, tends to create a monopoly of the service, to the probable endangering of the vessels approaching the port, and the certain injuring of the reputation of the port itself. As this tug steamer is not at liberty to go beyond a certain distance outside the harbour limits, it ia essential that provision 3hould be made for enabling pilots to go further to seaward,. and take charge of the inward bound vessels before reaching the intricacies of navigation, which render a pilot's aid advantageous, if not indispensable. This is, we believe, what all captains of foreign vessels de - sire, and it is to meet this necessity that Messrs. Cooper and Sainty have been successfully directing their energies. Is this the service, then, which the Board intend to interdict by attempting to get hold of the licences which these pilots now exercise? Wβ can hardly believe that this is what they contemplate j but this is nevertheless what their action will practically result in should Messrs. Cooper and Sainty be induced to return the licenses they now held. It is proposed, it is true, that "time service certificates" be given them instead ; but what the precise value of these may be does not appear. This is a point on which Messrs. Cooper and Sainty should be careful to satisfy themselves ; and they may rest assured that they will have the support of the community in their attempt to resist any curtailing of the rights which they now possess. People are getting sick of the monopolies which it is the tendency in certain circles of this city to favour, and the Board will do well by seeing to it, that in the matter of the pilot service, whose efficiency is so essential to the interests of our shipping, they do not put themselves out of sympathy with the popular instinct and love of fair play. a .