AUCKLAND HARBOUR BOARD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8484, 7 February 1891, Page 5

AUCKLAND HARBOUR BOARD.

A special meeting of the Auckland Harbour Board was held at noon yesterday. Present: Messrs. Niccol (chairman), Savage, Devore, Macfarlane, Dignan, Anderson, and Nathan.

The Chairman explained that that was an adjourned meeting to consider the accounts. Aβ soon as they had been received from Wellington he had called that meeting, because he considered it desirable that the Board which had had to do with the transactions of those accounts should have the adopting of them, and if any time had been allowed to elapse the meeting could not have been held until after the election. A letter from the Audit Department stated that the accounts had bsen passed with one exception, and that the item excepted was substantially correct, but was not in the form required by the Act. He (Mr. Niccol) should explain that the accounts were strictly in the form in which they had been passed by the Audit Department last year; and last year they raised the same question, but abandoned it. The Chairman, explained the* technicality to which the Department had taken exception, pointing out Mr. Bngham had made his accounts as clear an it wa3 possible to conceive of, for the information ot the Board, the public, and debentureholders; and though that item did not appear to have quite satisfied the Audit Department, they had not refused to audit the accounts. Nevertheless, it was very trying, indeed, that after one endeavoured to make his aocounts clear, it should be insinuated that this or the other had not been done that ought to have been done. It was now his duty to move, ' That the accounts be settled, and allowed by the Board in the terms of the Act." While he did not propose to go critically into the accounts, he thought it well, under the present circumstances, that some reference hould be made to them, because there appeared to bo an erroneous impression abroad that the Board were in difficulties, or were " hard up." Ho could not say how vexed he was that that apprehension should be attempted to be created, because nothing was further from the truth. Ihe Board had a Wxun of £15,000 to credit, and so far from having exhausted all their means of raising revenue, figures would show that the public of Auckland and the shippers were called upon to pay far less than was demanded for them in other parts of the colonies. He regretted that an attempt had been made on the part of one of the newspapers here to create an impression that the Board were in a state of difficulty. That morning the Herald had fallen into a most egregious blunder when it had stated that the Board had a princely revenue of £50,000. the revenue of the Board was really £30,000, and of that sum £11,000 was received from rents, so that the Board only got £20,000 from shippin". Lyttelton, on the same lines, received £25,000, 'and Wellington about £35,000. He was quoting from the accounts of 188 ( J; but, in justice to Wellington, it should be said that that port paid for the receiving of goods out of the £35,000. The money paid on that account, however, could not amount to more than £5000. Dunedin collected no less than £38,000. Their wants were such as to require the large sum, and the HERALD had stated that the Auckland Board collected more and had less to show for it than any other Board in the colony. The Herald seemed to have lost sight ot the •fact that Dunedin collected £38,000. The principal part of the assets of the Board consisted of a channel which was a constant source of expenditure to keep clear. The import wharfage at Auckland, exclusive of timber, amounted to only £10,000. Ihe revenue was collected on goods, some ot which paid 2s, some Is, and some as low as 0d per ton. Mow, if they collected on the same basis as Lyttelton or Wellington, the wharfage would be £ 14,000 instead ot £10,000, and if on the same basis us Dunedin it would be £20,000. Therefore he thought it unfair to the Board and the port that statements of this kind should be made. As to the charges for export wharfage, they had not been made up in detail, but they compared favourably with those of other porta in the colony. It could also be shown that if there was no occasion for the Board to increase its revenue, it had the material at hand to enable it to do so; but it had always been the effort of the Board to collect only what was actually necessary. Nr. Niccol, on the other hand, could not say that they had gone far astray in extravagance. Perhaps the offices of the Board were the most notable example of this —perhaps the only one. As to the docks, they should remember that at the time those docks were built, public feeling was strongly in favour of their construction ; and though they ware undoubtedly a great burden on the Board, yet the magnificent endowments produced enough to pay the interest upon the cost, so that they were not a burden upon the shipping Then the Board had u. great deal of uulet land, and as soon as prosperityincreased, they might see their way clear to reduce the charges on the shipping. He thought that comparison with the other Boards of the colony would prove clearly that the Auckland Board practised the closest economy. There was a time, indeed, when this was not so, when were nve engineers in the employ of the Board, but that time was gone by. The Board had reviewed the salaries in the various departments, and everything had been cut down, ill accordance with prudence, so that there was now no room for any charge of extravagance, though, indeed, they often found such to be the cry raised at the time of an election. It might be asked, if they had the credit balance of £15,000, where was the necessity of raising additional revenue, especially in view of the recent objectionable tax upon Hour? Well, as he had before explained, they were this year paying the full amount of interest and sinking fund upon their debt. They were also proposing, what no other Board had attempted to do, namely, considerable wharf extension, to be met out of ordinary revenue. They would spend this £15,000 shortly in the renewal and improvement of Queen-street Wharf. He thought there was a general feeling that thu Board should not depend upon loan money in the future, and that there should be no more borrowing, and in that direction they were now striving. With this £15,000 Queen-street Wharf would be thoroughly repaired and the accommodation improved. The next thing they would look forward to would be the renewal of the Riulway Wlmrf, which had now almost run the lease of the life of a wharf, which was about 15 years, and to enable the Board to do this' some funds would have to be accumulated from time to time. It would not do to collect the bare amount they were going to expend, and as they could not make bricks without straw, no more could they make wharves without money. (Mr. Devore : Nor machinery for the dock). As to the machinery for the dock, that would have to come, but there was no special resolution of the Board on that subject. Mr. Niccol again referred to the statements in the Hkkald, and said he thought that paper must have been misinformed, and that therefore it was necessary to put the public in possession of a few figures. He then moved, " That the accounts be finally settled, and allowed by the Board, in terms of the Act." The motion was seconded by Mr. Savage, and agreed to. The secretary submitted his report, which stated that the total receipts for 1890 amounted to £47,091 12s 3d, including a balance from last year of £14,811 18s lid. Interest, £"233 7s sd, and refunds £283 2s 10d. The net revenue, exclusive of balance, interest, and refunds amounted to £31,763 3s Id. By comparison with the previous year increases are shown upon various items of income, and these increases would doubtless have been largely augmented had not complications in reference to labour occurred during tho year, which interfered with the usual business of the Board. The decreases are accounted for by a slight shrinkage in export (mainly upon the produce shipped to Australia), fluctuations in traffic, and the services of officers of the Board and appliances provided not being made use of. The net revenue, however, showed a substantial increase for 1890 of £1035 los 6d. Briefly, the financial opera tions of the Board during the past year were as follow :—Balances, as per balance-sheet. £28,813 16s 6cl; revenue, including interest and refunds, £32,279 13s 4d; contractors' deposits, £475; sinking fund, £2769; interest on deposits, £14 8s Id : total receipts, £6452 7s lid. Expenditure : Salaries, interest, sinking fund, etc., £'28,026 13s 4d : works, £10,803 15s sd; totara piles, £537 6s 4d ; repaid contractors' deposits, £425 ; paid off 27 debentures, £2700; balances, £'21,859 12s 10d : total expenditure, £64,352 7s lid.