Board Paves Way For Maori Representative: Bi-Monthly Meeting

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 5, 9 December 1947, Page 5

Board Paves Way For Maori Representative: Bi-Monthly Meeting

Back in 1921-22, the Matatua District Maori Council was granted the right, under the Whakatane Harbour Act (Section 5) to have a representative on the Whakatane Harbour Board. That Council is now defunct, so that there is at the moment no Maori member.' However, the Board decided, at the ordinary meeting after the annual meeting last Friday that a letter be directed to the last chainnan of the now defunct Matatua District Maori Council with- the recommendation that the necessary steps be taken to have repealed Section 5 of the Whakatane Harbour Act 1921-22, and that in substitution therefore application be made for legislation permitting Maori electors in the Harbour District to elect one member to the Whakatane Harbour Board, the rolls for any such election to be the relative rolls of the various harbour subdivisions bound as one roll and titled to the effect that only Maoris enrolled on such roll are eligible to vote.

Annual Leave A copy of a letter received from the Harbour Boards- Employees’ Union asking all Boards to extend the period of annual leave from a fortnight to three weeks for all employees with ten or more years of service was forwarded by the N.Z. Harbour Boards Union of Employers, which sought the Whakatane Board’s opinion. Mr Boon said he .saw no reason for having such an extension written into the award; he felt it should be left to the individual Boards to give extended leave to men of good service, but he considered the present award provision for a fortnight was ample. The Board concurred, and that opinion is to be forward to the Employers’ Union. Loading Facilities

A letter from the Northern Steamship Co. Ltd. advised that when butter is being loaded in wet weather it is necessary to cover the conveyors by means of tarpaulins slung over ropes rigged from ship to butter locker. It suggested that a semipermanent framework of three lengths of timber, could be easily and cheaply constructed across the wharf, so that a cover could be quickly slung over in the event of rain. A framework such as this could also be used on very hot days to ensure that the butter reached the ship’s - hold on the coolest possible condition. The chairman and Messrs. H. W. Brabant and H. G. Warren were deputed to go into the matter.

Strand Extension The Whakatane Borough Council wrote advising that it was considering the erection of a power line across the mud flats and as it was desired to ascertain the exact route of the proposed Harbour Board road, the Board was requested to advise when it would be convenient for members of the Board to meet the Council’s Finance Committee to discuss the question. Messrs. Boon, Brabant and Warren, with the secretary and engineer, were appointed to arrange a conference with Borough representatives to go into the whole question of the road, as it was considered there was little chance of the Public Works Department doing anything about it in the immediate future.