CORRESPONDENCE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12766, 22 June 1911, Page 7

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE INJUSTICE OF* THE HAR-

BOUR BILL

A PLEA.' FOR DELAY

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I am compelled to again, ask you your consideration to enabje mo to pface "before the electors of the County of Wanganui certain .matters, which "for urgent private reasons, I am precluded from discussing in my place iiU the Harbour Board table. At the Board meeting of June 2nd,,the draft of the Bill creating tho, harbour rating area and providing the machinery for the raising and expenditure of the proposed loan was placed before the members. No opportunity] was then available© to discuss this Bill, but certain reasons were -given ■ across the table for the policy disclosed in it. 1 venture to say that no more grossly unfair measure was ever promulgated by a ,public body, and I ask your indulgence to enable" me to point out why. I may say at this point that in my opinion the absence of the; County representatives from the table, while unfortunate, is riot likely to make one iota, of difference to the policy of the Board. The majority have, as far as my slight experience of the deliberations of that body have; enabled me to judge, determined upon a policy which nothing that can be urged in the way of argument will move them to vary, and if anything is to be done to pre- * ent tho passage of this Bill in its present shape, it must come from owe>side and be-.the result of the aroused indignation o.f the electors themselves. The Bill which has been brought down, as you avo aware, makes the existing Harbour Board, electoral districts tha rating area. Now the present constitution of those districts is the result oE accident, not design. The Wanganui Borough and County were tlie original electoral districts, and when Waitbtara seceded, it ceased immediately to be a part of them. That was legislatively remedied. Later on Waimarino seceded, and the Board in its indolence failed to take legislative action and^sa lost a large part of its territory. The result was" that a portion, of the original Wanganui County is now left to bear the brunt of the rate, a gijsat slice of which has less in common with Wanganui than a considerable area ot Waimarino has This district .would certainly have - followed Waiinarino's example if it had had any idea that it would be 'included in the Wanganui Harbour rating.area. The upper end of the Wanganui County, however, bo> lieviug that it would be treated witn justice did not secede., It has been ruthlessly and-basely betrayed. A piece of territory. which under any circumstances iv ill not use Wanganui as a port, the inhabitants of which trade with other towns and which has no ■business connection with Wanganui at all, is made liable for a rate, while a 'largo portion of the County, of .Waimarino fronting on the Wanganui river and entirely dependant on that waterway and consequently upon Wangunun for'its supplies, escapes scot free. This, as far as I-could gather before I leftWanganui, is what the majority of the Harbour Board has determined upon, and tho reason advanced I am bound to say appears in my judgment to be the most paltry and insufficient reason ever put forward by a committee of business men. I feel that I would be failing in my duty to those who elected me if I Hid hot point this out. It is claimed that to do justice to the \Vanganui County would mean intev-i feronoe with existing harbour legislation. No claim "is made that the proposed Rill is a just Bill, and it is not denied that it is unfair to the northeastern end of tho Wanganui County. 3n fact, its own promoters admit that tho Bill is" unjust." Now, Sir, what is legislation for if nos to remove injustice. The fact is that in its extreme and unseemly hnsto to - get its Bill through the House this session, the Harbour Board is going to make tho rpper Wangaehu district liable for all time for "a rate of -2 of a penny in the pound, from which that district will get no benefit whatever. The Board is afraid if it includes'the lower portion of Waimavino, which should be included, and cuts out upper Wangaehu. which should be cut out, it will not have +he spending of two hundred thousand pounds for another year, and so it is going, to sacrifice the Wanguuui County. I ask you, Sir, can you support such a strategem as this? I hope riot. If. I am'not.'trespassing too far upon your space, I wish to point out at this juncture the unseemliness ot the Board's haste in pushing on this Hill in view of the engineering information at its disposal At the first meeting of the new Board, the Resident Engineer disclosed the intention of Mr. Reynolds for a high-tide wall to the north of the entrance. The existing wall has been described as a halftide Wall and its object, as certainly understood by the public and as evidently understood by the Board, was to enable the sand to come ove.r so that it might be washed out by the river and so deposited on. tho South Spit. The suggestion that Mr. Reynolds had intended a high-tide wall was repudiateri by the Chairman and not endorsed by any member of the Board. At tho next meeting of the Board, Mr. Reynolds was present, and when I put tho question to him he declared that a hightido wall was essential if a greater depth on the bar was to be obtained. Now, in his report to tho Board Mr. Reynolds had already drawn attention to "tho shoaling of the shore as disclosed by soundings, and pointed out, that this meant that the littoral drift was not strong enough to carry the heavier portions of the detritus southward, and that consequently the cost of' .maintenance would be considerable. Yet ho now proposes a high-title wall, which will carry the shore right out to ■vho end of the mole and undoubtedly enormously increase the shoaling—the vory thing that the late Mr. Napier Bell so emphatically warned the Board against. On my questioning him regarding this extraordinary reversal of what the Board understood to be the policy of the engineers, Mr. Reynolds declared that the soundings of former engineers wero faulty and that there bad been no shoaling at all—in absolute contradiction ot' his own report. Now, since Mr. Reynolds made those soundings and report on the remarkable and unexpected shoaling of the shore, no further soundings have been taken at all. He cannot know whether, even, under the existing conditions—which might be expected to prevent such, a state of affairs—shoaling does not still continue. And yefc he recommends a high-tide wall which is certain to increase whatever shoaling there may bo, in order to obtain the necessary depth. I ask you, Sir, wncther this is not compatible with the suggestion that this change of opinion regarding the shoaling of the.shore 'is merely to fit in with the requirements of the new scheme. In conclusion, I would urge that if the Board is anxious to do its duty by the electors, it will first lay down a reasonable am; equitable rating area, and secondly, make sure of its engineering facts before it hustles the unsuspecting electors into a rate.—l am, etc., W. J. POLSON. Melbourne, June 13th, 1911.