HARBOUR FINANCE

Colonist, Volume LX, Issue 14651, 4 March 1918, Page 3

HARBOUR FINANCE

"There are- iir $ie ■ Dominion 45 har-

tours ■ controlled by boards,"! said Mr J. Blair Mason in his presidential address at the Civil Engineers' Conference the other da 3'> "25 of which, have i a collective loan indebtedness of ntearly ; £7.120,000 with .assets other than cash

valued at £8,440,000,; and total annual charges for.interest and sinking funds amounting to £350,000. The loan indebtedness of the terminal and main ports, viz., Auckland, Napier Wellington,. TiVttelton, Timaru, .Dunedin- and the Bluff amounts' to £S,4OO,OOO.SSVLost oi .Mies*3 ports .possess landed property of great prospective value, notably at Auckland, IN apier, Wellington and Dunedin, where the endowments of land and land l'eciauned from t'e sea are city lands and the sources of considerable revenues which are in every case increasing every year. For example, the port of Dunedin possesses 145 acres of land in tho city of Dunedin available for leasing. From the portion fully absorbed into the city rentals at the rate of £1500 per acre are obtained. .When it is remembered that Dunedin, like other towns in New Zealand is in its infancy, it can be predicted that such an estate will some day provide a revenue largo enough fco. meet the cos£ of harbour improvement .and. maintenance. . . . The position, however, with respect to some of the subsidiary coastal ports cannot be said to be generally assured. Where little or no trade has developed the opening up of the...?and by railway or road may effect a diversion of traffic and result in the stagnation or ruin of a port, in the meantime money lias been spent on improvement works which in the future may become useless, and the port authority may have contracted liabilities which it finds it impossible to meet."