The Timaru Herald. SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 1905. THE HARBOUR LOAN.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXI, Issue 12583, 21 January 1905, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 1905. THE HARBOUR LOAN.

The chairman of the Harbour Board concluded his peregrinations through the district last- night, when he addressed a meeting at Waimate m .explanation if the Board's borrowing proposals. Perhaps the large amount of travelling and Talking that he has had to indulge in during the lest fortnight was respensible for-the regret, he expressed last night at'the -ai.t flint the limit of the loan had not been Sxcd £IOO,OOO instead of at half tint amount, with a provisioa to restrict the vspci'ciiture in the next five yeais io lie 000 which is actually being aske.l i jr. We do not know whether .anticipates that the additional money will be retired in the hear future, but if there is any prospect that it- will be, it would certainly have saved a lot of trouble if the larger sum had been specified in the Empowering Act, and thus obviated a fresh appeal to Parliament, and,to the ratepayers. However, it is too late to think of that now, and very Fraser has to thank the modest nature of Tils proposals for the absence of opposition which has rendered his progress through the district a comparatively easy task. : Waimate was really the only place At which a display of antagonism to the Board's reappearance before

the ratepayers in quest of authority to inits indebtedness, might have bean expected, but evidently the southern portion of the harbour district shares the satisfaction which has elsewhere been manifested in the Board's policy. it is regrettable, in some waj-s, that so few people went to the trouble of attending the meeting last niglit, but the paucity of the attendance ftiiowi at least that the ratepayers in that neighbourhood do net regard themselves as/ aborning under a bad grievance in having to sliaie the responsibility for the Timaru i Harbour Board's debts. If tlicy had been dissatisfied, or if they had been sus"picious- of the way jjg which the affairs of the port are managed, they would r.o - doubt have used the meeting as an opportunity for making a demonstration in force. It is fortunate that they did not think it necessary to 3b sbj and that the few people whb Vere present did not show any disposition to obstruct the borrowing proposals laid before them. Mr Manchester was' not exactly enthusiastic in. his support of the new loan, but- at least he took I a. sensible view when lie said that the. eastern mole had better bs completed, now that it had been carried so far. His reference to dredging was not altogether in order, as the purposes for whifch .this money is to be raised are. tlie completion .of. thfe mole, and the provision of extra wharfage accommodation, but the'dredging question will come up very shortly, and nothing was lost by. having it mentioned last night. As Mr Fraser pointed out, the rapid growth in the size of ocean steamers makes it. impossible to predict whatschemes will Tiave to be undertaken in,, order to keep the port- abreast of! shipping requirements, but even if the vessels trading here do not grow beyond their present! dimensions,,the Board will need to see that -betfer. results aye obtained for 'the'money that- is 'sjjent on dredging. Whether jthe present dredge can be altered to it. to the changed conditions it,.has now, to. deal with, or whether it will be better iind cheaper to obtain a different type pi machine, is a matter for the Board, and for engineer. As long as -the; harboui is'in existence, new problems will always be cropping up, and money will .be neederto meet them; The Board' 'jrili .liave ; nc reason to complain if it always get ai as • favourable a hearing as has ifalleni.to jthel lot o# its representatives in the series, of meetings that concluded last night. ;It only remains now for the ratepayers '• tc exhibit their approval, preferably. in;greoitc> numbers than has attended the preliminary gatherings, at the poll to be tai-sn at the end' of the month.