“NAVIGATIONAL RISKS”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27541, 8 November 1950, Page 3

“NAVIGATIONAL RISKS”

WORTH OTAGO NEWS

Minister’s Statement Criticised By Harbour Board

A statement by the Associate Minister of Finance, Mr Bowden, that overseas shipping would not return to the Port of Oamaru because of navigational risks, was severely criticised by the Oamaru Harbour Board yesterday. The raising of this question by the shipping companies was commented on adversely by members, who pointed out, through the harbour master. Captain J. E. Hancox, that the port was in the same workable condition as before the war, when overseas ships lifted many thousands of carcases from the Pukeuri Freezing Works. In a letter, the Minister dealt with this subject together with a loan for dredging and port charges, and the board’s reply was entrusted to Messrs A. R. Tait and A. G. McHardy with the board's secretary and harbour master.

The letter had previously been considered by the board’s committees, but the chairman, Mr A. McMillan, pointed out that people on the street knew that the board’s application for financial assistance for dredging had been refused by the Government, and the letter was released for publication. Mr Bowden wrote that the practicability of a further decentralisation of overseas shipping was still being examined, and he was therefore unable to indicate the final outcome so far as Oamaru was concerned. The overseas ship owners, however, had raised objections to returning to Oamaru mainly on the grounds of the navigational risks involved, and he thought it would be unwise for the board to anticipate the return of overseas ships in the near future. So far as financial assistance was concerned, Mr Bowden wrote, the Government had decided that no further assistance to the subsidiary ports on account of the centralisation of overseas shipping could be granted, and in the circumstances he regretted that no grant could be made to the board for dredging purposes. From the examination he had made of the board’s affairs it appeared to him that the board could finance the cost of dredging for coastal shipping without outside assistance. He noticed that the board’s harbour charges were very low in comparison with other ports, and it seemed that these could be increased, without losing cargoes, so as to meet the annual outgoings on such part of the dredging costs that might have to be met by a shortterm loan, says four to five years, the Minister concluded. The combined Finance and Shipping Committees recommended that the board apply to the Government to pass special legislation this session to enable the board to raise a loan up to £12,000 for dredging, the loan to be secured by a special rate over the board’s district. Mr C. J. Dugdale said he was very disappointed at the Government turning down the board’s application for assistance, but at least the board knew it had to stand on its own feet. The consolidated loan would be repaid in 1952, but he did not like the idea of increasing the harbour rate until 1952. The board might not require to increase the rate if a modified dredging programme was carried out until the Otago Board's dredge was available. Mr C. J. Marshall: We should not take it lying down. We should make a strong protest. Mr McHardy said it was a matter of Government policy. The subsidiary ports

of Nelson and Gisborne were to be assisted by decentralisation and overseas shipping, and the Government should be told that if the board had to look after its own finances, then Oamaru should not be overlooked in regard to overseas shipping. The chairman said there would be no levy of a special rate unless the board became financially embarrassed, which was a very remote prospect. The board would borrow against a loan authority. The board’s finances were healthy and strengthening. Possibly they would not need a loan, but it would not be good business to go on without an authority. Dealing with the statement by the Minister that the harbour charges were very low, Mr A. W. Malcolm suggested that this question be referred to the Finance Committee for Investigation. This course was adopted. Mr McMillan pointed out that the Treasury did not have the last two years’ balance sheets, and the Minister was therefore not conversant with the harbour charges, Avhich had been increased.