WARNING TO HARBOUR BOARDS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 30 April 1926, Page 9

WARNING TO HARBOUR BOARDS.

NO SPECULATION AVITH PUBLIC MONEY. By Telegravli*—Press Association. WELLINGTON, April 28. A word of advice to harbour board* was given by the Prime Minister to a deputation which waited upon him today from the Tauruuga Harbour Board. There is a l'our-mile stretch of railway Ime, laid down by the Public Works Department from Mount Maungauui xo a point on the line be tween Tauranga. and AVliakatane, and the Tauranga Harbour Board ]& auxiou* that this piece of line which constructed by the Public AVorks Department, not as * branch of the ordinary railway system, but merely for the purpose of conveying the material from Mount Maungauui for the continuation of the East Coast railway, should be used for the transport ot goods landed at what is known as “The Mount,” but without any surcharge. It w a a aCated by the deputation, that there was a prospect or certain companies starring industrial undertakings at "The Mount” and that 1 the carriage of their goods over the linil would bo worthy ot consideration fro®..' the revenue point of view. Mr Coates stated that tho section of the lin# would by no means be re garded as a branch of the railway system, but if the interest concerned were agreeable the com mercial branch of the railway Depart meat would be prepared to arrange contracts for the carriage of goods over t]l e lme. Ho declared emphatically that tu* country was not. going to be allowed to incur further losses on a branch line r-idway svstem if there could be avoid ed. it was no use to say that loss* could he made up from the Consolidated Fund, because, in the end, the people had to meet those losses. “In the interests of the people of New Zealand, 1 am not running into anv more losses :r 1 can avoid it,’ said Mr Coates, in urging the Taurunga Harbour Board to he cautious regard to expenditure tier wbarxes iv “The Mount.” ... Mr Coates remarked on the tenaenc. of the harbour boards to spend money on works when they should be conservi„,r their expenditure until they were certain that the proposed undertakings would he a success. He warned th* Tauranga- Board against iaslnng out into expenditure on a second port a\ “The Mount,” for which he was not prepared to grant any facilities, Harbour board., should not speculate with public money. They should h« satisfied that they had a good proposition before they did anything. "We are not at liberty,” said the Prime Minister, “to speculate with public money, whether it is from tb« pockets of the ratepayers or the general public.”