The Dominion. THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1911. HARBOUR FINANCES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1083, 23 March 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1911. HARBOUR FINANCES.

The statement of .the Chairman oi 1 the Harbour' Board upon the finan- | cial working of the port for the year ended September 30, while not without satisfactory features, is not altogether pleasing. Writing on November 27, 1909, upon a statement ■ by the then Chairman, Mr. Wilford, upon the results of the year 1908-9, which had seen a very unpleasant shrinkage of revenue, we noted that for some time the Board had led almost a hand-to-mouth existence, and that this was a highly unsatisfactory state of affairs. How unsatisfactory it was was shown by the statement of the new Chairman, Mr. Fletcher, on March 23 of last year, when the new taxes, estimated to earn £17,640 per annum, were proposed. Mr. Fletcher hoped that the Board would in future guard against "foolish expenditure such as it had sanctioned in the past," and urged that great care would bp necessary for some years. The Board unanimously adopted the new tariff, with some natural expressions of regret; but it ought to have acted upon the hint thrown out by Dr. Newman— who mentioned that he had made out a list of works that had accounted for the waste of some hundreds of thousands of pounds—and accompanied its resort to. higher taxation by some systematic inquiry into the whole subject of expenditure. The statement presented to the Board yesterday, showing the working of the year 1910-11, revealed a credit balance of £6218, duo, as Mr. Fletcher showed, to the operation of the higher tariff. Had those new charges not been imposed, he estimates, there would have been a deficit of £1793, "due," he says, "not to ah increase in working expenses, but the steady growth of the standing charges." He does not seem to have explained how the standing charges had grown; but that is not of the very first consequence, for what the public has a right to know is why the working expenses have not been operated on to secure a more healthy result. Why should the port, so fortunate in receiving an immense volume of trade, far greater than that of any of the other ports of the Dominion, be in such a position that a substantial increase in the business done would yet have resulted in a larger deficit than in 1909-10 but for the higher charges '1 It is apparent, on the Chairman's shoving, that another check or shrinkage in the trade done would produce a deficit despite the increased taxation. Are wc to assume that the Board would deal with such a situation as it dealt with the situation left at the end of Mr. Wilfof.d's chairmanship, by giving another turn to the screw? We feel bound to say that there is nothing in the Chairman's statement to encourage the idea that the Board would be in a position to adopt some less dangerous remedy. For it is a dangerous_ remedy. The increased charges did not lessen the business that has come with the general revival of trade, but that possibly was in part due to the fact that the revival was so great that only a penal addition to the dues would have had a large discouraging effect. But the figures all point to the fact that the taxation necessary to square accounts temporarily in the event of another bad trade year would be far heavier than that imposed last year. This will bo seen if we consider the result Mr. Fletcher would have had to announce if the charges had not been increased. He would have had to say: "The increase in the volume of trade has been very good. Growth continues. Yet the year shows a deficit of £1798 as against a deficit of £682 for that really bad year 1909-10." The public would have promptly _ asked: "Where is the Board drifting?" And, indeed, it can ask that question now. The Board should not be increasing the charges; the port must be kept a cheap port if it is to continue to grow in strength and soundness. And how does the Board propose to produce a sound position on a basis of a return to normal charges? We would commend these questions to the attention of members, not in any hostile spirit, but in order to emphasise the fact that during the current year their best energies must be devoted to the economic administration of the Board's affairs. There are pleasant features in the Chairman's statement, but the position :a not without its unpleasant aspects.