HARBOR ENDOWMENTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 770, 3 December 1886, Page 10

HARBOR ENDOWMENTS.

The Chamber of Commerce has received the following letter from the Secretary to the Cabinet, in reply to the resolution passed at the last meeting of the Chamber, on the subject of endowments for this harbor : “Sir, —I have been desired by the Hon. the Premier to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of yesterday, conveying a resolution of the Chamber of Commerce regarding endowments for the Harbor Board of Weilington. lam to state that the Chamber seems to be unaware that the Legislature at its last session authorised the Government to grant to the Board—l. A piece of land containing by measurement 1 rood 12 perches, being section 234, and part of Block 11., on the plan of the Thorndon reclamation. 2. A large piece of land, being a portion of the bed of the harbor, lying to the eastward of Waterloo-quay. These lands were, however, only to be granted on condition that the Board should accept the same as full compensation for the land that had been resumed for purposes of a printing office- The Government offered to do what the statute authorised it to perform, but the Board would not agree to the condition imposed by the Legislature. It is out of the question for any Government to attempt to negative a provision that has been deliberately inserted in an Act of Parliament. lam to point out that the letter -of the Hon the Colonial Treasurer, to which the resolution refers, was written on the 6th August, 1S 5 5, and therefore before Parliament had decided the matter. lam further directed to state that there seems to be an entire misconception as to the endowments ordinarily granted to Harbor Boards. For example : The Otago, Auckland, and Lyttelton Boards have not received endowments of lands, but merely grants of the foreshore. These lands they have had to reclaim at their own expense, or to pay the cost of reclamation if they had been reclaimedbefore grant. The Wellington Harbor Board has obtained considerable auantities of land, as a reference to the Wellington Harbor Board and Corporation Land Act of''lSßo will show. It is true that the Wellington Board has not obtained perhaps such valuable foreshore endowments as some of the other Boards, but then the Government do not hold these foreshore endowments in Wellington, excepting the land held for railway purposes at Thorndon, which is not half the area of reclaimed land held by the Government at Dunedin. No doubt as tho railway traffic increases, the department will find that the land it no v holds is *oo limited in area for its purposes. What has happened in Wellington is that the City Council, possibly because there was no Harbor Board in existence at the time, has received the endowments that in other places have been given to Harbor Boards. Thus the City Council has received under the Wellington Reclaimed Land Act of 1871, a considerable area of land (about 10 acres), including the site of the Corporation offices. It ia true the Corporation had to pay tha cost of the reclamation of the area, bat so • had other bodies to whom reclaimed land had been granted. Then the City Council received an area of no less than 70 * aerps under the Te Aro foreshore grant of 2574. I am desired to point out * that no other City Council has been thus -, treated, and as the endowments that the -, Government should hare given to the Harbor aBoard h»vo been already obtained from the j Crown by tha City Council, it is entirely. misleading to aappose that the Government. - is holding bock from the Wellington Harbor . Board land that has been granted in other r parte to like bodies. lam further directed to state that the only sections held by the Government undisposed of on the Thorndon reoiama- - mation, when the Government took twelve. Of thesesevenhavebeengrautedi—one to the Education Board ap a site for offices ; . one to the Education Board as a site-for a School of Art—a most necessary institution ; . one to the Fine Arts Association ta a»eitefor an Art Gallery; and four for the Harbor. Board bj the Act of last session. Of the remaining sections, two were authorised to- be exchanged for what is known as the; Masonic Grant, and the Premier is of opinion thatthe remaining three is really too little land for the Government to have reserved, considering to what Wellington may yet; develop, and tho land that may be. required; for Government purposes. I ami to add that, there were 10 acres of the bed of the harbor(now reclaimed) given to the Wellington,anch Manawatu Railway Company* and that this, was given with the full sanction of the. people of Wellington, and supposed to.be in, their interest. The Premier hopes that after the explanation thus given the Chamber o£ Commerce will appreciate, the position, in which the Government is placed. “I have, &0., ‘ a Alex., Wilms.*