AKAROA WHARVES. To the Editor.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 626, 14 July 1882, Page 2

AKAROA WHARVES. To the Editor.

Sir, —I was very much amused at the ideas arising in the fertile brain of Mr Duxbury on the above subject. I should advise him to stick to his profession, and let borough matters alone. The idea of the farming community having the management of tho Akaroa wharves is about the best joke I have heard for some time. Iv fact, the whole of Mr Duxbury's remarks, from first to last, I consider a lot of bunkum. " These wharves were made for the farming community," he says. If he were only alluding to tho outside wharves, his remarks might be a little near the mark, but I think there are hundreds of others, besides the farming community, who make use of them and pay for it. He then goes on to say, " The wharves are all going to decay, and the public bodies would take no responsibility regarding them," and then attacks tho Akaroa Borough Council for taking the management of their wharves. Are they not a public body, and are they not preventing the wharves from going to decay ? He then goes on to a most absurd comparison, viz., the Lyttelton Harbor Board and the Akaroa Borough Council. Does he think for a moment that if the shipping trade of Lyttelton was not larger than that of Akaroa, there would be any necessity for a Harbor Board there ? I wonder he has not proposed that Banks Peninsula should he reptesented on the Lyttelton Harbor Board ; and who could better fill the place than himself . His vast experience in such matters should certainly entitle him to be elected. He informs you the people of Wainui are willing to be rated for keeping their wharf in repair. I think they aro the wrong sort to wish to be rated for anything of the kind over there. Just look at the steps leading up to their wharf. You

were kind enough to point out to them some months ago that one or two of the steps were loose, and should be attended to at once. A couple of nails in each would have done it. But no, it was nobody's business, and so they have drifted away. For the want of a couple o? pieces of 4 by 3, the decking is all being eat up by the trucks with firewood, This is certainly penny wise and pound foolish busi - ness. If the Government have been kind enough to put up wharves in these Bays, the least the settlers using them could do would be to look after them, as they have nothing to pay for the privilege of using them. As far as I can make out, the great cause of complaint at present about the Akaroa wharf ia, that produce landed on tbe wharf has to pay dues, whilst that sent away from this side bas not to pay any. But this is no fault of the Council's. As there had been no export dues in force before the Council took over tbe wharves, it was their wish to still do without this, and for this reason a clause was inserted in the scale of dues submitted to the Governor to this effect, that " The produce of the Akaro. and Wainui districts should be exempt from import dues," but this the Government would not accede to, and so it was struck out. It now seems to me that, as everyone seems so willing to pay an export duty, the sooner it is levied the better.—Yours, etc., AKAROA.