WESTPORT’S WORRIES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 17779, 30 January 1920, Page 5

WESTPORT’S WORRIES.

(Per Press Association.) WESTPORT, Jan. 29. In leference to the Press Association message regarding Wostport Harbour Board deputations to the Prime Minister. the Westport News strongly attacks the statement of the Hon. Herrins that the Most port Harbour Board has r-G moral claim to the impost placed an revenues from railway and wharf. The nett revenues from these were granted under an Act of Parliament in 1884 for specific purposes. namely the making and equipping of the Westport Harbour Board, ami on these securities the Harbour Board has borrowed monies amounting to £850.000. The effect of the Government’s impost is to nullify the endowment, as the Board receives •nothing of the impost, but has to pay all additional expenses in the wav of wages granted to the men r rhe section of railway, and the wharf and harbour staff, also all the increased cost of materiel and upkeep. Mr Massey’s statement that the non-receipt of these extra charges v. as not the only cause of the Board’s financial difficulties, hardly states the position correctly, for the Government bas the power, under the Finance Act. to increase the impost, -i that if the go-slow policy at the mines had not reduced the earnings of the railway, the Government, under the Finance Act. could have macle additional impost- on the revenues that woidd have still loft the Board impoverished. The News contends that the legislative action in giving the impost to the Government instead of allowing it to go to the Board as part of its revenue. introduces a pernicious principle that, unless speedily removed, may he applied equally disastrously to the endowments of other public bodies.