The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1909. BASELESS CROWING.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13840, 27 February 1909, Page 4

The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1909. BASELESS CROWING.

■ The Timaru Harbour Board- has au--1 quired a habit of. crowing in- its annual reports, which does not appear to be •in the best taste, as practised is misleading, niid it eaniiot be of any sevviee. The "crow" takes the form of eoniparisons of the year's total shipping tonnage,, trade and revenue, with those of some previous year, and these comparisons arc not fairly made. In last'year's report the .comparison ivas made, between the returns for 1907 and those for 1898, instead of taking the lull decade as usual. Now 1898 happened to be a slack year, the total, trade' being over 5000 tons less than the year before, and very nearly as much below the average of the previous . ton years. In last year's report this slack year was used to supply a datum for a calculation that the trade of the port had increased ,138 per cent, in ten years, or more than that of any other large port of the Dominion, whereas , except in that restricted comparison it had clone nothing of the sort. More--ovcr, the returns will not yield to our figuring more than 92.6 per cent. -In this year's report the decade comparison is reverted to, and the dull year again comes in handy for bringing out apparent high percentages of progress. The shipping, trade, and revenue arc claimed Ho have made '" magnificent increases during the last decade." The figures given seem to prove it, 'but they only do so because 1898 was a slack year. The increase in shipping tonnage' in the decade —123 per cent. — drops to SO per cent, if the comparison is ■'■ made with 1899. The tonnage necessarily increased with the size of the vessels employed in" the trade, but unfortunately this has no influence upon the volume of trade, except perhaps in respect of -direct imports. The trade of the port is claimed to have iiu-teased 100 per cent, in .the ten years. But, omitting that unfortunate year 1898, the increase is less than 9 per cent, on the average 'of the rest of the decade, and only 1.3 per cent, on' the average of the live years preceding last year. Similarly with respect to the ordinary revenue. This last year was, as stated, 108 per cent, greater than in 1898, but only 14 per cent, more than the average for the decade, not 15 per cent, more than the revenue for 1900, and not so much as 1 per cent, more than the average for the five years preceding 190 S. The Harbour Board's annual reports are - printed, bound, and widely distributed, and are intended to be read and believed, therefore such statements about " magnificent increases " ought not to find place in them, because they aro misleading. They are also pitfalls for the Board itself, inasmuch as next year, unless fhe dull year 1898 ia re-

taincd :is the standard instead ol" taking the decade period, * all the percentages will have to be pulled—down, and the year following pulled down further still —unless there arc very large real increases in the trade of this and next year.