WAIRAU HARBOUR.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 470, 31 March 1909, Page 5

WAIRAU HARBOUR.

FUNDS WANTED. GOVERNMENT WILL NOT SUBSIDISE. A deputation of five members of tho Wairau Harbour Board (Blenheim) waited upon tho Hon. J. A. Millar, Minister for Marine, yesterday morning. Mr. John Duncan, M.P., introduced the deputation, which had come to aslc for financial assistance in coping with the forces of nature which constantly lend to block up tho port. Mr. A. M'Callmn (chairman of tho board) spoko of the disabilities caused by tho bar at tho Wairau Harbour. Ho submitted a schemo for dealing with the bar, with a plan by Captain Eckford, who was prepared to carry out tho work and keep it in repair for 12 months for ,£3OOO. Tho board could hot undertake tins without financial aid. , Mr. Macey submitted a plan showing tho lauds which tho board desired to have as endowments. Mr. A. Mackay, in urging tho need for assistance, pointed out that tho proposed works would benc.fit tho Government through tho medium of land tax, because if they were not carried out a considerable area of highly-pro-ductive land would be flooded. Tho board really required aid at tho rato of ,£SOO a year for live years, independent of tho endowments asked for. He thought tho board would bo able to get along without' a subsidy after tho close of fivo years. Mr. J. J. Corry showed photographs demonstrating that 40 years ago vessels larger than those now cutering the harbour could discharge in tho town. Unless something was dono to arrest tho silting up, there would soon bo no port thcro at all. They hoped that, once the river was properly dredged out, the scour would keep, it clean of siit. The lands they wanted for endowments were at present of no value to the Government or anybody else. Tho work to be dono was required for flood relief if for nothing else. The Havelock, Motuckn, and Nelson harbours all had annual subsidies, yet Wairau shipped more than tho three combined. Tho board, after paying the pilot, had no revenue to pay tho secretary or to buy ink for writing to the Minister. They wore, therefore, making a final appeal, and if they could not make progress they would get out. The Minister, in reply, remarked that ho was in a dual position as Minister for Marino and Minister for Railways, and tho deputation was asking him to provide money so that the board could starve another branch under his control, namely, the Picton railway. Ho had been over the country and seen the whole district, but there was a new phase in tho-ques-tion as now presented. They were asking him, as Minister for Marine, to provide money for a land-drainago schemo. Tho Marine Department had nothing whatever to do with land drainage, and ho believed that no drainage board received any assistance from tho Government. The Revenue of such bodies was drawn from rates on tho lands benefited. The deputation had asked for ,£SOO a year, and offered to\give nothing in return for .it, whereas tho Nelson and Motueka Harbour Boards, which had been mentioned, gave something to the Government. He believed that the suggested scheme would not be effective owing to tho power of the southerly drift. At present the Wairau Harbour Act conferred no rating powers. There were numerous applications for Government assistance to small harbours totalling about .£150,000, but they would find that there would not bo much , money spent by the Government in that way When tho Government's dredge,- which was now at Helensville, had finished tho work thero and also at Havelock,' it would be sent to Wairau, as he had previously promised. In regard to endowments, the lagoon might bo given for this purpose, but land that was now producing a revenue to the Crown could ■ not he granted. The shipping would never pay for keeping the harbour open, and nothing but rates on the properties would. Not one harbour board was going to get a cash endowment from tho Government. He suggested that the Harbour Board and the River Board should bo amalgamated. He would send an engineer to report on the harbour as soon as convenient. ■ Mr. M'Callum said ho agreed with the Minister's suggestion that the Harbour Board and River Board should bo amalgamated.