HARBOUR IMPROVEMENTS.

Thames Star, Volume LII, Issue 13819, 8 October 1918, Page 1

HARBOUR IMPROVEMENTS.

(To the Editor.) . Sir, —Evidently you ase not yet prepared to candidly define your attitude ac to whether the rate- j payers should! be consulted by a. poll ! before being! rated for harbour im- j proveiment. You. say you "see no i reason why this .-'liould not be done," but you ' 'do not tee that- the questiion" bears the importance with ■which 1 invest, it"' because 'Parliament will proibably make ample provision in the proposed Bill for safeguarding the public against exploitation." You profess to* gather from my letter that I " 'desiro a poll as an initial step to decide whether powers shall bo granted to the Harbour Board aib alii*' I now,challenge you to show that, my ■words, or n.y actionsi, at any time, or a.t any plaoei justify you in 'gathering' any such, absurdiity. In your next sentence you correctly quote me as saying! that lf the people who are expected to.^ay must bfe'consulted by a poll before 1 beiing' ratejd "' How any rational 'maini can place the odnstntc- ; tioin you fov'e done on tliesig ford's, is. a problem, beyond my power to solve-. 1 still insist and list as emphatically that the people who are expected to pay, shall be g"ven the opportunity of refusing, to do so, if in their collective opinion the scheme piropcwnded is nob woith the cost or otherwise unsound, or if one small sootion of the district is likely to ineaipi practicably all Ihe benefits' to bes derived while the balance o? the district may be, asked to bear by for the greaiter part of tihei burden. If thpi.members of the conijfereneei are sincere in their professed opinions as to the'need of a harbour to oa.tei- for the whole of the Thames Valley and Hafuraki "Mains trade, then let them at least show some faiiith in tihe common sense of the country people and evolve a practa cal busiinesslik© schema which would confer benefits' proportionate to the various contrjjbutionsaskedfor and "thefi"'^^''^'^^^^-.^'^ ratepayers in a \ manner likely to; inspire '"confideriice, instead of seeking to obtain the mastery before laying their cards on tho table.—l ami, etc.. - H; A. MILLS Turua, Oct. 5. ("To seicvk to 1 g'a.im the mastery before laying their cards on the tab) c" is so' much nonsense. Cr. Milkl knows that the suggested bill must hava a definite: plan, of woirks at-: tiaohed to it. :.To show how genuine; is h,is deS'irei ; .for s'ich. a plan, his casting yot©' preiventfid the Couti'lty Council from votingl a sknsi) fuin towai'ds the cost wf obtainingl one. Asl far as the rest' of h:s letter is con-cei-ned! (it has been, curtailed to suit our spactei); there \$ no dotij,fusioin' except on Cr. Mills'' part a® to what the poll is for. What he now contends 1 for is already provided in the Public Bodies Loans Act:. 'What he appeared to ba insisting; upon be now rightly calls ani absurdity. We are content to leave it' at that. —Ed. Star.)