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New Zealand Mail, 22 April 1887, Page 16

It is much to be regretted that the City Council and the Harbor Board could not come to an understanding on the questions at issue between them. Nor can we understand how the Council could have been so shortsighted as to let matters drift into their present position. We have reason to believe that the dispute might have been accommodated three weeks or so ago when the Board did send to the Council a conciliatory letter proposing a basis of agreement, but no notice was taken of document and vvhen at last the _ Council did send an answer, the time had passed by Jfor concessions, the Board s Bill having been put through the preliminary steps of its Parliamentary career. Why did the Council neglect thi3 important matter so long 1 Certainly after what has come out about the way in which the Te Aro reclamation extension was gone about, one can scarcely be surprised at any vagary on the part of the Council ; still we should have thought the gravity of the question, and the proximity of the session, would have galvanised Councillors into a little spasmodic life. And now that Councillors have at last taken the matter in hand, they are certainly not dealing with it in the temperate and practical spirit which such a matter demands. The fierce denunciation of Councillor Williams will not either alarm the Harbour Beard or damage the prospects of the Board’s Bill passing. Nor will all this fiery eloquence convince the citizens that the interests of the harbour, which is all-in-all to Wellington, ought to be prejudiced in any way by the action of the Council. . The people have awakened to the surpassing value of the harbour, and fully realise how infinitely more important it is bo them than any quantity of reclaimed land.