HARBOUR BOARD ADMINISTRATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2935, 15 June 1910, Page 14

HARBOUR BOARD ADMINISTRATION.

COMPLAINTS AT AUCKLAND. AUCKLAND. June 7. A deputation from the Auckland branch of the Shipowners’ Federation waited upon the Minister of Marine (the Hon. J. A. Millar) to-day. Mr T. H. White (president of the federation) explained that the deputation desired to call the attention of the Minister to several anomalies in regard to the administration of the Auckland Harbour Board. The board had recently increased its charges, but the burden tell almost entirely on the shipping interests. Mr W. G. Smith said the present system of harbour board representation was an anomaly. He called attention to the board’s methods of business, and instanced the Kaipara mishap as a case in point. Sites for ships could only be secured under the most impossible terms of tenancy, and he asked for some protection in these matters. Mr C. V. Houghton, manager of the New Zealand Shipping Company, and Mr Bradney, spoke strongly in favour of better representation for shipping on the board. The Minister, in reply, said the Government intended to introduce again the Harbour Administration Bill next session. He did not know that the deputation would get all it wanted, but the shipping interests would under the new act be able to elect one direct representative. He was not in favour of large boards, and he thought 14 members quite enough. What he had heard that day had strengthened his belief that the Government was right in retaining the power to elect Government nominees on the board. Mr Allison : It would be ail right if you appointed the right men. Continuing, Mr Millar said that, if the board commenced piling up the dues on shipping, then it remained for the companies to put up freights. Shipping companies were not philanthropic institutions, and if the board handicapped it would come back on the public in the long run. The weight should be evenly distributed between the two. If this port was a transhipping port, it would feel the pinch, for no vessel under the existing state of affairs would stay more than a day in the port if it could be helped. There was a great future before Auckland, and it behoved the Harbour Board to pursue a policy consistent with the development of the port. He trusted that in the future there would be less cause for complaint in regard to the actions of the Harbour Board than there was to-day.