A MOMENTOUS QUESTION.

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

A MOMENTOUS QUESTION.

1 WELLINGTON GRAVING DOCK. . \ In tho course of his annual report, the chairman, of tho Harbour Board (Mr. Robert Fletcher) stated yesterday that. tho matter of Wellington's Graving Dock had been the momentous question (luring the year. It had caused much serious thought, and the circumstanccs surrounding the position have been of a very trying character. "Throughout tlio whole of tho negotia* tions," said Mr. Fletcher, "I took up a firm stand, which was maintained all through, as I domed it to bo of the most vital interest to the board and the public—any other course I felt sure would end in disaster both to the port and the city. "Tho Wellington Harbour Board Empowering Act, 1910, was passed towards the end of the Ecssion, authorising tho board to postpone .the construction of the dock; protecting existing rights, vesting 1 land in tho board, and authorising tho board to employ moneys standing to the credit of the dock fund account, and to bo used for harbour works, and giving "tho board authority to construct a dock at any future time, and for that purpose to set aside £250,000 out of the million loan authorised by the Wellington Harbour Board Empowering Act of 1905, but not yet raised. "On behalf of the board I wish to place on record its thanks' aud appreciation of the valuable assistance rendered to me as chairman of the board bv the Right, Hon. tho Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, Dr. Findlay, Mr. Massey, and members of Parliament generally, for assistance and advice given prior to, and during tho passage of the Bill through both Houses. "As tho whole matter was only recently discussed, some few months 6ince, and is fully set out in both the secretary's and engineer's reports, I need, not dwell further on the subject, than to say that if the public understands the truo position, it will endorse tho action that has . been taken, and tho solution of this trouble as arrived at should mc*t with liie approbation of the citizens of Wei. lington and surrounding districts."