BLUFF HARBOR BOARD.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10751, 26 April 1911, Page 4

BLUFF HARBOR BOARD.

/PZE PBPBB ASSOCIATION./ Invercargill, April 25. Since the Blnff Harbor Board resolved a month, ago to give the whole of the pilot .staff .three months' notice of the termination of their.engagements, and Chief .Pilot and Harbor Master M'Donald Ta_ year's leave of absence, prior to the 'termination of his engagement, considerable interest ,has been evinced by residents, of the Bluff and others in what they considered to.have been the too hasty action of the Board. At today's meeting of the Board a motion was considered which in effect would have, amounted to a reinstatement of Captain M 'Donald as harbor master. The previous resolution dealing with the staff was carried by the narrow margin of five to four. To-day the Chairman' (Mr-E. A. Anderson}, after expressing regret that, the outside pressure which had been brought, to bear had made it necessary to give a full explanation of the circumstances leading up. to Captain M'Donal'd's dismissal, gave a' detailed statement compiled mainly from resolutions, recorded in the minutes of the Board for the last 10 years, which showed that the recent Knight of .the Garter incident (which immediately • preceded the dismissals) was but the final stage in a series of cases of what the Board held to be neglect of duty by Captain M'Donald. The minutes of the Board showed "that warnings had been given Captain M'Donald for occasional lapses into intemperance. This explanation would, he said, never have boon made .had not some of Captain M'Donald's friends unwisely pushed the matter. It was freely admitted that Captain M'Donald was an excellent pilot, but that there had been rases in which his administration as harbor master had been hardly satisfactory. The motion Was lost by six to three. At a later stride C'apiain I.ov.rt, who has been second in command for 19 years, was appointed a'-tiim chief piiut and harbor ma.-ii r.