The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 1909. HARBOUR BOARD MATTERS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13939, 26 June 1909, Page 4

The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 1909. HARBOUR BOARD MATTERS.

Tho Harbour Board yesterday dcalb with a number of items of business of some, though great, importance. One-of the most interesting was tho report of the resident engineer on the results of J lis soundiugs survey, and his statements that the- entrance channel now lias a depth of 24ft on the centre line, and 23ft can be counted on, at low water of spring tides. This :'s important, as raising the standard of capacity of the port, as tested by the draught to which vessels may bo safely loaded here. At tho same time it is * to be remembered that tho increased depth is'due to the dredging operations, and it remains to bo seen whether a

big storm associated with it rapid current, such as occasionally occurs, w.ill not undo in a few hours tlic work that the dredge has clone, by siltitijj; up the trench. It is always troublesome to amend scales of charges, but the. inequality in the result of applying the present scale of charges on shipping, disclosed by Mr McLaren'V letter, certainly .seems to require- amendment of the scale. The Hoard discussed another subject, of a rare and accidental character, mentioned by Mr McLaren, but. passed over his complaint about the. fixed charges, simply accepting the non-committal report of the- Standing Committee, which had no recommendation to make." Looking at the matter from a disinterested point of view, we should say that the Committee should have recommended a recasting of the whole system of charges, for the present system—if it deserves to he called a. system—is an absurdity. The exolanation of its nature and the excuse for its existence may be that it is an evolution, -tinder the pressure of occasional growls by interested parties* of a scale that was adopted in the old surf-boat days. The official list of harbour dues is givci\-in the annual report under five, heads, but as two of them i're alternatives, each ship has to nay under four heads, and the Harbour Board staff, we presume, has to work out the accounts in quadruple form. Some, of the charges are made on the toniiap l of the ships, some on the tonnage if cargo, some alternatively on one or the other; and there are maxima here and concessions "there, until one wonders bow the. auditor manages to make. sure, that tho items lie exMiiiiies are all in order. On several occasions in tile past, the question has been raised of the weight if {•barges at Tiniaru compared with that of cliM-ges at other ports, and it has boon I'-uind impossible to compare them in del ail. owing to the different method of charging in use here. The Chamber of Commerce might find some useful work in trying to get tho complexity of the harbour charges at Timari simplified. One. other item •■? yestor-lay's business calls for comment. The chairman, referring to tho difference in the franchises in borough and count', and to the desirability of equalising them, made a proposal which nu.y appear - reasonable enough .to a matt who takes a municipal view of tho matte--, but county people surely cannot find it commendable. At present votes for the. election of members of the Harbour Board arc possessed by ratepayers only in the counties, but by

ratepayers and their wives, and hy rentpayers and their -wives, in.' the liorou'j;l)s. Mr Craigie's idea is that the county franchise • should he '■ raised to the level of ■ that in the . boroughs.

'As an alternative to the Parliamentary franchise this might ho admissablc as tho least of two absurdities. The more sensible plan would lie to reduce the borough franchise. Tho election of tho Harobur Board should l>e tho election of business men, by, as much as possible, men of business.