HARBOR BOARD.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 10038, 3 May 1904, Page 3

HARBOR BOARD.

At the Harbor Board meeting this afternoon, m discussing the reply to the Public Trustee's letter, Mr Matthewson emphasised .that the Board's action was not a new thing. Three years ago they offered good security, with . interest -at 5 per cent., and the Trustee refused to invest their money. It was not a new thing. 1 They had pre- v viously recommended good security, but they had been ignored. Mr- Whinray : The fast Bill was to get over tliat. . Mr Sievwright: I venture to say that there .is not another local body m New Zealand 'whose funds have been dealt with by Parliament as these have. It was, perhaps, becuuse we were a divided house here as to the works. The Chairman: The Trustee is not' to blame for that. Mr Harding said so long as he had a seat on the Board he would go to the Supreme Court, Parliament, or anywhere until the tiling was. settled. He would not cease pegging away until they got satisfaction. The Chairman said all the expenses wero going on all the time. It cost them £200 a year for management of the funds. The funds could be better invested, and the Board were taking the necessary steps to obtain the market rate of iuterest. They did not expect 5 when 4_ jier cent, wiis only ruling. He maintained that it was a laudable, position for the Board to take up to endeavor to assist the Trustee m getting better investment for their money. They liad' not been disrespectful to the Trustee m his official capacity, but they felt tliat the district should not be losing £1000 a year. The efforts of the Board would no doubt. result- in getting the money better invested-, at a liigher rate. It was not intended that the Trustee, should hold £20,000 of he harbor, funds for a loan to the Borough Council. It. was wrong to do so, as the Borough Couucit were not authorised to borrow. Mr Sievwright urged that the portion proposed to be eliminated from the letter should go m. It showed tliat the Board could take action if they chose. "We are not attacking the Public Trustee at all personally. We are attacking him because he is the creature of a statutory system," concluded Mr Sievwright. Mr Harding said there must be some power liigher than the Public Trustee. The Chairman seemed to put him on a - pedestal j as if his word was law, or as if lie were "monarch of all he surveyed." If action had been taken tliree years ago I the harbor funds would have been m a different position. Mr Sievwright said the question of the £20,000 loan to the Borough Council would come up later for discussion. The letter was adopted as originally drafted, Mr Matthewson dissenting m regard to the inclusion of the paragraph about the Court. . - :