FOXTON HARBOUR.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 904, 25 August 1910, Page 10

FOXTON HARBOUR.

. »— PETITION TO PARLIAMENT. A petition from tho Foxton Harbour Board for financial assistance to enable it to properly deal with the Han.awo.tu River and improve it for navigation has been presented to the House of Representatives by Mr. E. Newman, M.r. for Manawahi. Tho petitioners urge that the reveuuo collected by the Railway Department, which controls tho wharf, is over JCSOO a year, but scarcely any money has been spent on the river. As a.result of the neglect of the Railway Department, it is urged, the river is silting \m, and the bar is worst) now than it has been for many years past. Complaint is also made that the Railway Depart has taken a. valuable portion of the foreshore which was vested in the board, and, without any compensation, to the board, handed it over to private firms, who are paying rent tor it, whilst tho .Railway Department'.claims all wharfage from goods passing over this wharf. The Marino Department handed over endowments to the board, the rovemio from which endowments is .£lsl 12s. Gd., and tlio pilot dues and receipts from all sources during tho year ended March 31 last wore JM9O 4s. 6d., which revenue, it is urged, is too limited to allow tlie Harbour Board to keep the river in proper order. The petitioners urge that if the river is not kept in a proper condition a serious loss to tho district will result, and they ask that Parliament 1 will, grant the right of the wharf, and nil wharfages to the board, as this revenue should in all cases be snent upon the harbour or river. It is also urged that' such wharves have in similar cases been.rightly handed'over the Harbour Board. Failing this, the board ask to be allowed to purchase the wharf from the Govemmout, at a valuation of the present value of the structure, with no regard to the revenue derived from it. Until one of these alternatives is given effect' to the petitioners a'sk that the Railway Department.should grant it a substantial subsidy to enable the river to be properly, dealt with and improved for navigation.