HUTT HARBOUR INQUIRY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 230, 27 June 1944, Page 4

HUTT HARBOUR INQUIRY

Wairarapa Local Bodies To Give Evidence Dominion Special Service. MASTERTON, June 26. At a meeting of Wairarapa local bodies a decision was made to give evidence before the commission to inquire into the development of the Hutt River mouth area. Messrs. R. E. G. Lee, J. W. Gard, S. J. Judd. T. Hodgins, D. L. Taverner, J. B. Carruthers and W. Kemp were appointed a committee to act in consultation with the two district representatives on the harbour board. Messrs. T. IL Barter and H. Morrison. The three district M.P.’s will be ex officio members of the committee, and Mr. J. C. D. Mackley will be secretary. , “The cardinal policy of the Wellington Harbour Board has been to give service and keep down costs/’ said Mr. Barter. Iu an exporting country that was imperative. Wellington harbour had facilities. hardly excelled by any port in the world. The area which the commission intended to investigate was ouly six miles away from Lambton harbour. “For God's sake turn this down, said Mr. Morrison. They had facilities at Lambton’s 10 wharves for handling transport. The board had handled double the amount of traffic that it had ever before. There was going to be a fall in. shipping traffic. If the present facilities could handle double the previous volume why should they develop another portion of ♦ho harbour. It would be a decade before the shipping would be so great that the Lambton wharves could not handle it. Mr. Mackley, M.P., said Aotea Quay was in normal times never operated to oil per cent, of its capacity. The matter, he declared, should be approached with an open mind in light of the order of reference.