THE VICTORIA WHARF

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22397, 19 October 1934, Page 8

THE VICTORIA WHARF

The history of the Otago Harbour Board’s attempt to obtain a rail connection to the Victoria street wharf covers a long period, and to the present time is a record of frustrated effort. The Railways Department has opposed the board’s advances with a consistency that would have broken down a less determined spirit than that in which they have been forwarded. Moreover, the Board has not enjoyed the unswerving support of all the other public and quasi-public organisations in Dunedin. The meeting yesterday between members of the Railways Board and representatives of the Harbour Board and of shippers and payers of dues on ships, was of such a nature as to encourage the hope that the protracted deadlock may finally be ended. A stage in the negotiations seems to have been reached at which the possibility of an agreement may at least be regarded as no longer remote. The Harbour Board has retreated so far from its original attitude as to be willing to provide the cost of the connection from the wharf to the railway yards, and the Railways Board is apparently prepared, on certain terms, to undertake haulage on the lines thus provided. The position thus differs materially from that which existed four years ago, when the Harbour Board, with perhaps more hope than justification, laid down lines during the reconstruction and extension of the Victoria street wharf, in the expectation that the Railways Department would, sooner or later, establish a connection with the wharf and defray a proportion of the cost. At that time, the Railways Department was not only demanding a higher haulage rate than the Harbour Board woidd consider, but, in addition to refusing to undertake the cost of the connection, was raising every possible objection to the Victoria street wharf as the site for a railway extension. The Harbour Board’s reasons for laying rails in spite of this disagreement were, first, that the work could be more cheaply done while | the general construction was in pro- j gress, and, secondly, that it believed the Railways Department would even-

tually recognise that it was itself in the best position to judge which of its wharves should be developed to accommodate big vessels. Now, however, that the Harbour Board is no longer insisting that the Railways Board should share the cost of the rail connection, and the department has evidently withdrawn its never very impressive opposition to the Victoria street wharf as a suitable site, the question has, as Mr Sterling remarked yesterday, assumed a different aspect. It remains for the Railways Board to meet the Harbour Board on the question of haulage charges, and as the extent of the concession asked is that these should be placed on a parity with the charges made at the other principal ports, it should be reasonable to anticipate that a satisfactory agreement may be at last obtained.