Harbor Ratepayers.

Opunake Times, Volume V, Issue 208, 1 September 1896, Page 3

Harbor Ratepayers.

Mr McGuire, in his speech in the House in urging the claim of the New Plymouth Harbor ratepayers to" restitution for the land taken from the Board's endowment, moved the adjournment of the House in order to have the matter discussed, and must have been thuuderstrnck when ho got the following broadside from Mr E. M. Smith. The ratepayers will also be surprised at Mr Smith's change of front on such an important question to them generally. Mr Smith said (as reported in Hansard): —If he sat still in his place without saying a few words on this occasion, he would be placing himself in this position : The honorable member for Egmont weald most likely go back to his constituents at the next general election and say that he had brought this question of the New Plymouth Harbor, and matters pertaining to it, before the House, and that he (Mr Smith) had sat in his place and said nothing. He was very sorry to have to differ with his colleague on this occasion, because he did not think it was any use to be contin nlly harping on the one string. They had surfeited the House by their appeals on this question ; they had spoken so often, and brought the matter before the House so many times, that he considered it useless to bring the matter up agaia. There was no man in the country who knew better than did the honorable member for Patea that this obnoxious harbor-rate was a wet blanket to the settlers in the district; but at the same time they had a Committee of the House set up, and they knew the result of the finding of that Committee. He had always said it was a blind, bad policy of the Government not to give converted bonds for the New Plymouth Harbor Board bonds, because when the bondholders offered to take 4 per cent, it wo ald have saved £4OOO a year to the colony and to the district. There was no doubt about it; and he found that the Council of Foreign Bondholders had actually, in the case of a Government in South America, taken 1£ per cent, for those default bonds there, because there had been a default. It showed him clearly that they had been paying too much to the foreign bondholders all along when paying 6 per cent.; and when the bondholders had been willing and anxious to take 4 per cent, it was wrong that the Government had not formed some scheme to take over those bonds. The New Plymouth Harbor Board had laid a financial statement before the Government, in which they clearly showed that, with the increasing prosperity of the district, brought about by the wise administration of the land laws of the present Government, they would be in a position at an early date to pay off the back interest of £12,000 that they owed the bondholders. Since then they had paid off every farthing that they owed the bondholders. And the day was goie by for the bondholders to bother their heads about trying to oppose the Government when they went to the London market for a loan. The bondholders themselves were perfectly satisfied; they were laughing up their sleeves when they got the back interest; and, if they got the 6 per cent., what would they care ? Nothing at all. And as for the statements of his honorable friend and colleague, he did not think he (Mr McGuire) believed them himself. It was only an electioneering dodge on his part—there was no doubt about it.

Mr McGuire rose to a point of order.

Mr Speaker said he must check the *hono:able member for using unparliamentary language. .

Mr E. M. Smith said he would withdraw the statement, and use other words to convey hi* meaning. He himself had done everything that was possible for a man to do, by setting up a Committee of the House, and by speaking in the House, but when he found it was only a waste of time, and a waste of the business of the country, he (Mr Smith) was not going to be found playing the same game as his honorable friend, who' had tried to throw the discredit of this business upon the Government. Now, they knew very well that the Government rcc.'.. ed much confidential correspondence, and it was very wrong in principle for confidential correspondence to be dragged up on the floor of the House. But his honorable friend and colleague never gave the Government credit for anything they did ; he had not given the Government credit for the assistance given to- the harbor. He (Mr McGuire) had forgottou that the Government had come to their assistance, and that only for that assistance the whole of the £200,000 they had already expended would have been lost. He (Mr Smith) said that only for the action of the Government in coming to their assistance by sending up engineers to the harbor to report, and by the House voting sums of money and giving them the prisoners to keep the harbor in repair, the breakwater would have been lost. He liked to give credit where credit was due ; and he firmly believed that but for the big question behind the New Plymouth Harbor—they knew very well that those other harbors — the Dunedin Harbor, and every other harbor—would want the Government to take over their harbors, and a large amount —some four to five millions of money—would be involved. Mr Pinkerton —Not the Dunedin Harbor.

Mr E. M. Smith said the honorable member for Dunedin City (Mr Pinkerton) might say No, but the late member for Dunedin City—Mr Fish—had advocated all the harbors being taken over by the Government, or a consolidation of the loans. He (Mr Smith) was convinced the time had come—or it was fast coming, at any rate—when these harbors would have

to be taken over by the Government. They had the most important harbor on the West Coast, fed by the most fertile lands and rich minerals, which they were unable to complete and render serviceable for the want of a few thousand pounds being expended on it, while the Wellington Harbor Board, with its grand shedding, and electric lights, and hydraulic cranes, had so much that they had to .build an ornamental building to get rid of it. He held that this harbor and all harbors should be under the administration of the Government, as were the railways. They were national property, and they were used for a national purpose; and if the harbor was taken over by the Government, and worked by their own officers and engineers, they would be able to maintain it by the expenditure of a few thousand pounds a year. They had one of the best paying railway lines in the colony, but the harbor was not as it should be. Now, let me tell the House that if they got the works in connection with the harbor completed aud an outer harbor constructed, if they did that, the largest ship that came to the southern seas could sail there and lie at anchor in perfect safety. That was part of his great scheme; and if he thought the action on the part of his honorable friend would do any good he would back him up, and he (Mr McGuire) knew he would ; but he did not believe it would. This continual harping would, however, do no good to the district. He (Mr Smith) firmly believed that if the Government and the House looked at the importance of this question they would recognise that something would have to be done. There was one thing ho regretted at the present time : that the late Premier of the colony, who had gone up there, while he would not admit that this 200,000 acres of land had been taken wrongfully from the harbor, said he was willing to compromise the matter by recommending the Cabinet to set aside 50,000 or 100,000 acres of land as an endowment. Unfortunately for the district, the then Chairman of the Harbor Board, who had since died, refused to accept the compromise. That had been lost to the district. And he (Mr Smith) did hope that the Government and that House would see its way clear at an early date to take over the New Plymouth Harbor. At the present time they had a hostile Harbor Board to fight, and he might tell the House that he intended to fight the Harbor Board, and fight them he would at the next general Harbor Board election. He believed he would not be doing his duty if he did not put his views before the House and the country, in order that his constituents might see that he had spoken fairly upon this question in the remarks he had made. He said the honorable member for Egmont was doing the Government an injustice in not giving them-credit for the assistance they had rendered to the New Plymouth Harbor, and any relief the ratepayers would get would come from a different—quarter. The importance of the district would warrant the construction of the outer harbor. Model plans and specifications would be supplied at an early date by him, and he would show where the money was to come from. As his time was now up, he would reserve what more he had to say for another occasion.