THE GREYMOUTH HARBOR BOARD.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 839, 30 March 1888, Page 32

THE GREYMOUTH HARBOR BOARD.

(I*BR PI.ESS ASSOCIATION.) Greymouth, March 26. At the meeting of the Harbor Board this evening all were present except Mr Blieedy. Upon a circular from the Government, asking the Board to resign in a body,.being rdhd, Mr Seddon moved and Mr Guinness seconded a resolution to the effect that the Board, after careful consideration, does not see its way to acquiesce with 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 Westport Harbor 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 body, it would be doing, as it were, that which, under clause IS of the Greymouth Harbor Act, Parliament alone lias the power, namely, declaring the works to be colonial works ; and it might be construed as recommending Parliament to dissolve the Board—admitted maladministration or incompetency ; or, on the other hand, that the Board desired the local control and administration, together with the valuable endowments, to be taken away.” MrSeddonadvocatedthereßolution in a long speech, and protested against the Greymouth Board being requested to resign by a copy of the same circular as Westport, as if one body was as culpable as the other, whereas no charge had been brought against this Board of maladministration or iucompetency, 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 until the Board was abolished.