THE WAIPUKURAU PRESS FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 1934. HARBOUR BETTERMENT SCHEME.

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXIX, Issue 150, 22 June 1934, Page 4

THE WAIPUKURAU PRESS FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 1934. HARBOUR BETTERMENT SCHEME.

In an informative special report supplied to the Napier Harbour Board by Mr. A. H. Ferguson, well-known in Hawke’s Bay local body circles as for many years clerk to the Hawke’s Bay County Council, and Messrs. Rainbow, Hobbs and Nesbitt, leading accountants, appear estimates’ of receipts and expenditure in respect of the seven years from 1934 to 1940 (inclusive) ending on September 30, and approximate savings to producers and importers of’ the district if the now proposed Breakwater Harbour scheme is carried out. “ Having made exhaustive inquiries in regard to the various figures placed before us, and the calculation thereof,” the report states, “we report that, in our opinion, the attached schedules of estimates are fair and reasonable, and as such may be placed before the ratepayers of the Napier Harbour Rating District at the forthcoming poll.” A summary of receipts and expenditure for the seven financial years named, conditional on raising a loan of £335,000 for construction work at the Breakwater Harbour, is contained in the following table :• 1934, receipts £78,262, payments £79,989; 1935, £87,700, £80,603; 1936, £89,150, £83,760; 1937, £89,840, £90,006; 1938, £90,350, £97,472; 1939, £87,900, £93,362; 1940, £89,650, £86,312; total receipts £612,852; total expenditure £611,504. An estimated surplus of £1,348 is thus revealed —not a large sum eeitainly by way of a margin on such a heavy outlay, but nevertheless a satisfactory figure if the anticipations are realised. A statement showing the cost at present incurred by producers and importers of the district in handling their goods under existing methods, as compared with the estimated saving that would be effected by direct handling to and from overseas vessels of the same goods at a wharf such as is proposed, indicates that there will be a very substantial working credit by virtue of the improvement scheme, recently given due publicity. The gross annual savings on the handling of export and import goods is estimated at £60,992, which, less average extra wharfage to be charged by Harbour Board at 1/- per ton for 4 years, and 6d. per ton for 2 years, £7300, leaves the estimated total annual saving when facilities at Breakwater, now proposed, are completed, as £53,622. Helpful to the campaign the advocates of the proposal now before the ratepayers to spend large sums on the extension of the breakwater (£30,400), construction of a concrete wharf, with sheds, cranes, etc. (£143,000), arid 1800 feet of western mole, with breastwork (£70,000), also dredging work (£45,000), forming part of total involved in the aggregate of the special loan contemplated, is the fact that the people of Hawke’s Bay have become weary of the delay in getting something accomplished in the way of finality to the long deferred hope that the province will eventually be blessed with harbour facilities worthy of the position the Port of Napier occupies as the fifth largest shipping centre in the Dominion.