HARBOUR BOARDS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 63, 9 December 1918, Page 8

HARBOUR BOARDS

WASTEFUL EXPENDITURE ALLEGED £100,000 LOST AT WAIROA Among the local Bills put through all their stages and passed in the House of Representative* late on Saturday night were the Kapier Harbour Board Bill, the New Plymouth Harbour Board Empowering Bill, and the Wairoa Harbour board Lmpowering and Loan Bill. There was no opposition to the Bills, but they gave rise to an interesting discussion 'in the general question of harbour works and loans. Mr. G. V. Pearce (Patea), chairman of the Local Bills Committee, said he would like to draw the attention of the Government to the expenditure of harbour boards generally. There seemed to be no check on tho expenditure, and an enormous amount of money had been wasted. The Wairoa RarHour Bill proposed an expenditure of ioOCO on a temporary entrance to the river. The sum of ,£IOO,OOO had been spent on Wairoa harbour already, and .the whole of it, had been lost. Napier, had-spent haif-a million on harbour works, and wns "proposing now to spend more money at a new place. Gisborne was about in the 6ame position. Then there was a. Bill to authorise an expenditure of .£150,000 at Wanganui. >The Government ought to look into the matter, for there had been more waste of money on harbours than ou anything else in New Zealand. He believed that much expenditure was undertaken merely in order to ljenefit the towns, and the country districts suffere j. 3fr. Pearce added that he was not ohjecting to the New Plymouth Bill, which he believed would produce good results. The Minister of Marine (the Hon. T M. Wilford) said that Mr. Pearce's remarks had much truth in them. If the harbour boards were not more careful about their expenditure it might be necessary for the Government to control all expenditure on harbours. There was no help for the. expenditure of .£SOOO at Wairoa. Over 100,000 carcasses of meat were lying at tlie port, and had to be got out. But it was a fact that ,£IOO,OOO had been lost at Wairoa on harbour works. The harbour board, for some reason, had disregarded the instruction of the Marine Department as to the width of the channel, and had made the channel too narrow. The consequent scornhad cut away the papa, and then one'of the retaining walls had collapsed. The Government engineers had advised that tho ioOOO must be spent now to get the meat out. The alternative was to construct a new harbour about -22 miles away, and this scheme was dependent on railway communication. With regard to Wanganui,. the original estimates of cost had been upset by the increased cost of materials. The additional expenditure provosed was approved by the Government engineers. He had examined the New Ply-mouth Bill, and had stipulated that plans as approved by the Government engineers must be adhered to exactly. Mr. C. A. Wilkinson' (Egmont) said that he could answer for the soundness of tlie New Plymouth proposals; They had been well thought out, and the financial position ofithe New Plymouth Board was excellent. The money spent at New Plymouth had been very beneficial to the whole country. There would be .no waste at' New Plymouth. Mr. W.' A. Teitch (Wanganui) said that as a .member of the Wanganui Harbour Board he wished to congratulate tho neighbouring port of New Plymouth on the improvements that were being effected.