TOWN EDITION. The Daily Telegraph MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3242, 21 November 1881, Page 2

TOWN EDITION. The Daily Telegraph MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1881.

The beaefit the port and town of Napier will derive from the spontaneous action of the few resident, who have found the money to secure a report upon the harbor from Mr Goodall, cannot be oxer-esti-mated. The public spirit that prompted the meeting of those residents, and devised the means to obtain the services of so eminent a marine engineer, was extremely praiseworthy, and exhibited in a striking degree the enterprise so invariably found amongst colonial communities. Had the gentlemen who took part at the meeting to which we refer, and subscribed the necessary funds to carry out the object they had in view, been animated by less public spirit they would have remained contented with a state of things that is doing a vast injury to the town. They would have said that the Harbor Board was the proper authority through whom any movement of the kind should come, and in no better hands could the matter be left. They would have said that the Board had expended many thousands of pounds in the improvement of the harbor, ami (hat with the dredging operations about to be commenced there was every reason to believe that the port would be quite equal to the shipping trade of the town. Had they reasoned in that way, had they declined on those grounds to exert themselves for the benefit of the port, there would have been little chance of this

town progressing, and the question of a harbor for Hawke's Bay wonld have been quickly taken up by the large prodacers, and Napier left out of their calculations. There is, further, nothing to be expected from the Harbor Board. That body has committed itself to a mistake, and it is hugging the blunder to its bosom. But tbe tender care shown to the hideous abortion will never make the public believe that such an offspring can ever grow to wholesome proportions. The puddle of water know as the inner harbor, with all the dredging that may be done, will never be capacious enough to provide adequate shipping accommodation for the trade of the port. We pointed this out years ago : we said that when the bar was removed there would be no room inside for more than a small steamer and a schooner or two. There is no space for quays. It was only the other day it was reported that two small cratt could not be berthed, yet, not Counting tbe lighters, there were not half-a-dozen vessels, and those of a light tonnage, inside the harbor. All the anticipations of the " croakers," all the evil predictions of the " amateur engineers," whose opinions were so scornfully deprecated, have been realised to the letter, while all the predictions of the Board, and of those who pinned their faith upon Mr Carrufners' scheme, remain unfulfilled. And there is the additional cause for disappointment to that which arises from the useless expenditure of £75,000 in the fact that the harbor endowment is mortgaged to the full extent of its present value. Not another shilling, we imagine, could be borrowed on the security of the Board's estate. In the meantime, so great is the dissatisfaction with the harbor, that the advisability of loading a vessel off the mouth "of the Tuki Tuki river next season is being freely discussed. Year after year we have been told that " next season" we shall have a vessel inside tbe harbor, but this next season never arrives, and now producers say that they can load a ship nearer to their own doors than at Napier. A vessel can lie off Blackhead, or the Tuki, Tuki, and be loaded as expeditiously as it can in our own roadstead. But this fact does not stir the Board to action, and it is now more than ever to be seen that the constitution of that body is neither beneficial to the port nor advantageous to the commerce ot the town. The Board is composed as follows : three nominees of the Government, three elected by the ratepayers of Napier, the Mayor of the borough, two elected by the Council of the County of Hawke's Bay, two by the Council of Waipawa, and one by that of Wairoa, The Board that decided upon the adoption of Mr Oarruthers , scheme was wholly nominated ; the Board as composed above refused to consider any other plan, the nominees and the country members combining to defeat the wishes of the townspeople and their representatives on the Board. The result has been that the loan is expended, the securities exhausted, and we have no better harbor, no better shipping accommodation, than we had before a penny piece was spent. Surely it was time for someone to take the matter in hand, and our thanks are due to those who have sent for Mr Goodall.