THE GREYMOUTH HARBOUR BOARD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9012, 27 March 1888, Page 5

THE GREYMOUTH HARBOUR BOARD.

[BY TELEGRAPH.— ASSOCIATION.] Greymouth, Monday. At a meeting of the Harbour Board this evening all the members were present but Mr. Sheedy. Upon a circular from the Government, asking the Board to resign in a body, being read, Mr. Seddon moved, and Mr. Guinness seconded, a resolution to thd effect that the Board, after careful consideration, does not see its way to acquiesce in the Government's request that they should resign in a body, for these reasons : — (1) The Greymouth Board was constituted under a separate measure, and distinct from the VVestport Harbour Act; (2) individual appointments are made by the Governor under section 4 of the Act, and it is only reasonable to expect that strong grounds must exist before His Excellency would be advised to take such an extreme step ; (3) by the Board resigning in a bodyit would be doing, as it were, that which under clause 18 of the Greymouth Harbour Act Parliament alone has thepower, namely, declaring the works to be colonial works, and might be construed as recommending Parliament to dissolve the Board for admitted maladministration or incompetency, or, on the other hand, that the Board desires local control and administration, together with its valuable endowments, to be taken away. Mr. Seddon advocated the resolution in a long speech, and protested against the Greymouth Board being requested to resign by a copy of the same circular as was s sent to the Westport Board, as if one body was as culpable as the other, whereas no charge had been brought against this Board of maladministration or incompetency, while Parliament tried and condemned the Westport Board. The resolution was carried by four to two. Mr. Petrie calling for a division, he and the chairman voted against it. Mr. Petrie then handed in his resignation. Mr. Seddon spoke in bitter terms of the traitorous way in which the Board had been used, and its character misrepresented in a local paper, and by means of false telegrams sent all over the colony. The Chairman, although opposing the resolution, said he would not resign until other members did so, or the Board was abolished.