WESTPORT HARBOUR FINANCE

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 107, 30 January 1920, Page 6

WESTPORT HARBOUR FINANCE

STATEMENT BY SIR WILLIAM iiIEXHIES DISPUTED. By Telegraph-Press Association. Westport, January 23. In reference to a Press Association message regarding the Wcstport Harbour Board deputations to the Prime Minister, the "Wcstport News" attacks a statement nf Sir William Herries that, the Wcstport Harbour Board has no moral claim to the impost placed on revenues from, tho railway and the wharf. The net revenues from these (the paper states) tverc granted by Act of Parliament in 1881 for a specific _ purpose— j:ame!y, the formation and equipment of Weijtport Harbour—and on these securities tiie Harbour Board has borrowed moneys amounting to ,£850,000. Tho effect of the Government's impost is to nullify the endowment, as Hie board receives nothing of the impost, but has to pay all additional expenses in the way of Wages granted to men on a section of lailwny and on the wharf and to the harbour staff, also all (ho increased cost of material and upkeep. Mr. Massey's statement that the sion-rceoipt of these extra charges was not the only ennse of the board's financial difficulties hardly states the position correctly. Under the Finance Act it is legal to increase the impost, so that if the "go slow" policy at tho mines had not reduced the earnings of the railway the Government under tho Finance Act could have made additional imposts on the' revenues that would have still left tho board impoverished.

The "News" contends that the legislative action in,giving tho impost to the Government instead of allowing it to go to the board as part of its revenue introduces a pernicious principle that, unless speedily removed may be applied equally disastrously lo endowments of other public bodies.