BLUFF HARBOUR STAFF.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1111, 26 April 1911, Page 10

BLUFF HARBOUR STAFF.

i£j Tclccraph—Press Associatlon.l Invercargill, April 25. Since the Bluff Harbour Board resolved, a month ago, to givo tho wholo of the , pilot staff three months' notice of tho termination of their engagements, and the chief pilot and the harbourmaster (Captain M'Donald) a year's leave of absence, prior to termination of engagement, considerable interest has been evinced by residents of tho Bluff, and others, in what they considered to have been too hasty an action. ■ At to-day's meeting of the board a motion was considered which, in effect, would have amounted to a reinstatement of Captain M'Donald as harbourmaster. The previous resolution, dealing with the -starf,-was carried- by- the narrow margin of sto 4. _ Yesterday the chairman (Mr. R. A. Anderson), after expressing regret that outside pressure, which had ■ been brought to bear, had made it'necessary to give a. full explanation of tho circumstances leading up to Captain M'Donald's dismissal, gave a detailed statement compiled mainly from, resolutions recorded in the minutes of the board, for the last ten years. Tho geuoral effect of tho statement was that tJiG recent Knight of the Garter incident (which immediately preceded the dismissal) was but the final stage ma series of cases of what tho board held to be neglect of duty. The minutes of the board showed that warnings had been given to the harbourmaster for occasional lapses into- intemperance. This explanation would, he said, never have been made had not some of Captain M'Donald's friends unwisely pushed the matter. It was freely admitted that Captain M'Donald was an excellent pilot, but that there had been cases m which his administration as harbourmaster had been hardly satisfactory. Tho motion was lost by 6 to 3. At a later stage, Captain Lovatt, who has been second in command tor 19 years, was appointed acting-chief pilot, and harbourmaster.