UNDER FIRE AGAIN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 438, 2 December 1930, Page 8

UNDER FIRE AGAIN

WANGANUI HARBOUR BOARD

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE VIEWS

Suggestions that local bodies might combine to employ a man to answer arguments with regard to the Harbour Board and its policy, and that the Chamber should take steps to see that the Harbour Board is a re constituted body after the next ejections, were

made at last night’s meeting of tin Wanganui Chamber of Commerce.

Progress Not Favoured.

'l’be discussion arose when Mr A. S. Burgess presented his report with regard to the deputation from the Chamber that was to wait on the Harbour Board offering any assistance. Mr Burgess said that fortunately the matter had been overlooked at the time. Jt was fortunate because they would have been met with a counter that the Board was not going on with the loan. All the Chamber could do was to take an active hand to see that the Board would be re constituted at the next election. At the present time they had a Board that was not in favour of progress at all. If the district was to go ahead, and if the harbour was to go ahead, then the Board would have to be re-constituted so that it would be a go-ahead body. It would be a good idea if the local bodies would take a hand. Some steps should be fatten to counteract what was being done. Mention was made of the fact that there was to be a meeting at Okoia tonight at which Mr Hogan and Mr D. Ross would be the speakers on harbour matters. A Paid Publicist? Mr -I. Patterson suggested that the • hamber should get somebody to go up to the meeting and put the Chamber’s point of view before it. It would pay rhe local bodies to pay someone quite a good salary for the next six months to attend the meetings and reply in the papers to statements made. Mr Burgess moved that the Chamber write to the Development League and that a conference of the two bodies, in connection with the harbour, be arranged at the earliest possible moment. 4 ‘Do you mean to go the whole hog?’’ Mr Burgess was asked. Improve as wp can. gradually, answered Mr Burgess. From the outside? asked another member. From the outside, replied Mr Burgess. The chairman. Mr A. E. Rankin, said that the present change of front was brought about by the times that the country was passing through. It would not be so if there were the prosperous ▼ears that had been the case a few years ago. Mr Burgess said that the opinions of Mr Donald Ross had not changed 19 the last forty or fifty years. The chairman remarked that apparently nothing would be done until the next elections. M? Burgess: Nothing at all. Is It Politics? Mr R. Ratrick asked if the Chamber had any right to enter into party politics. Mr Burgess held that it was not party politics, but the (’hamber was working for the good of the district. The district that the Harbour would draw on would extend to Dannevirke in Hawke’s Bay. to Pahiatua in the Wairarapa. and to a point between Pa tea and Ha era. The quantity of cargo outward and inward, that would pass through the port, would be astounding. said Mr Burgess. A short discussion then took place on what the Harbour Board had done, the principal points being that there was now 24 feet of water on the bar instead of twelve as at the start, and that the Harbour Board had incurred loans totalling £600.000. Mr Burgess held that the Board was not doing its duty at the present time.

Mr Patterson said that they all knew what had been going on. and the Farmers’ Union and the Agricultural Association had been slinging off and had' been doing it for years. The Chamber should have somebody to reply to that. Mr Donald Ross wandered all over the place and bad no facts at all. He bad said that the cool stores had made a loss last year, where as a matter of fact •Jjp cool stores had made money.

The motion was at this stage, having be**n seconded, put to the meeting and «a rried.