DUNEDIN DILEMMA

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2141, 6 May 1914, Page 7

DUNEDIN DILEMMA

/ • NEAT REPLY BY HON. AV. H. ' '. BERRIES. (Br Tele- -nh.—Press Association.) . ■■'■'/■ , Dunedin, May 5. '.' A deputation, consisting of Mr. H. E. Moller, chairman of the Otago Harliour Board, and several members of the hoard; waited on the Hon. "W. H. Her- . vies. Minister of Railways,, at Port ' Chalmers this afternoon,'to urge a. reduction in freights, on tho . DuncdinPort Chalmers line, and to request tho Department to widen the George Street . Pier at Port Chalmers, so that „4he hoard might proceed with the deepening of the berth; and ultimately make it able to accommodato vessels drawing , SOft. of water. In reply", Mr. Herries said that the whole of this proposition, so far as he could see, depended upon the policy that the board was going to pursue. It was practically a/ new board now, and it seemed to him that tho question resolved itself into whether they were . going to make their principal harbour at Port Chalmers or at Dunedin: It would not bo a business proposition if ■ tho Department went to the expense of widening tiro wharf, and the board, on its part, deepened the berth, if they wero going to get tho big ships up to Dunedin. Tho samo thing applied in regard to tho .rates on the railway. Tho Department was not suro that it was not going to get competition, after Jowerine: the rates, by big ships going up to town. Tho question of the rates on the railway would, however, be carefully considered, though he did" not say that they would reduce tlicm. The Department was prepared to meet them if it knew exactly -what tho policy of tho board was. Sinco ho had taken offico ho had not been able to fathom tho policy of the board sis to whether it ' was going to irfako/Dunedin or Port , Chalmers the port of Otago. Before it got that information he did not think that the Department should commit itself to an expenditure which ; .might later provo to be practically useless.