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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3677, 27 April 1883, Page 2

Our, morning contemporary has a leading article on tho subject of Mr Vauticr's claim against the Harbor Board for refund of wharfage dues paid on coals landed for the T use of the railway. If the Herald had not referred to the question at issue we should not have touched it. The origin of the claim is very simple. Mr Vautier for a considerable period had the contract to supply the railway with coals, on landing which, he paid wharfage dues. Subsequently Mr Kennedy, of Greymouth, became the successful tenderer, and only paid wharfage dues on protest. Those dues have since been refunded to him, on the ground, we presume, that the Board had no right to levy dues on coals for Government use. Mr A 7 auticr then put in his claim, which was not entertained; he thereupon put forward an amended claim, which only included dues paid on unbroken cargoes delivered at the wharf for the Government. The Board agreed to pay this demand. At the next meeting of the Board the payment of the voucher was refused, and the matter referred to the solicitors. Now, the Herald says, Mr A r autier "was evidently ignorant of his right to claim exemption from wharfage dues on coals imported for the Government. It is therefore but reasonable ' to suppose that, in calcidating his tender, he added the wharfage dues, aud in that case he actually received the dues from the Government. Mr Kennedy, on the other hand hioiriug the law better, would leave ■wharf ajrc clues out in calculating his tender." The deduction the Herald makes is that the Board has the right to take advantage of Mr A T auticr's ignorance of the law; and, because he has probably taken out the amount of the dues in the price of the coals, the Government has paid the dues, and not Mr A T auticr. Ouc thing is clear, the Board has received wharfage dues on Government coals. The whole question seems to us to lie in a nutshell —had the Board the right to those dues, and, if not, should it retain what it had no right to take ?