The Daily Telegraph. WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3752, 25 July 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 1883.

Is it not probable that tho Harbor Board has made a mistake, in its anxiety to secure another decision from the London judges of the competitive designs ? Is it not just within the bounds of reason to suppose that Sir John Ilawkshaw and Mr Abernethy arc not the best judges in the world? Granted that those gentlemen are tho most eminent engineers known to the profession, it may still be thought that a local knowledge of the port at which it is desired to make a harbor would be advantageous. The judges know* nothing of Napier, nor did many of those who sent in plans for a harbor. Some of the rejected designs may have been admirably adapted to this port, but the want of local knowledge on the part of the judges must naturally have inclined them to favor a plan that went all-fours with the expressed opinions of Mr Carruthers, Mr Weber, and Sir John Coode. But, we would ask, is it not a fact that the whole of the information furnished to Mr Carruthers, to Sir John Coode, to Sir John Ilawkshaw, and to Mr Abernethy all came from tho same fountain head ? Was it not Mr Weber, and nobody else but Mr Weber, from start to finish ? Sir John Coode could not have known anything whatever of Napier except what he gathered through Mr Weber, and Mr Carruthers could not have known much more. From all this wo arc inclined to think that in Sir John Coode's and Mr Carruthers' reports we have have not so much of their opinions as we have of Mr Weber's. A professional man visits this port and remains here but a few hours, and spends the most of his time in talking to an old resident who is wedded to but one idea; lie naturally enough goes away with the one single impression, and writes his report after receiving a second or third instalment of information from the same old resident, all of which would be based on the one virgin idea. The supporters of the Iron Pot extension scheme may believe as much as they like that it has tho approval of independent men in the highest ranks of the profession, but when it is seen from whence all the information has been drawn there is not much independence about them. They have all been, unconsciously perhaps, drinking from the same fountain, and naturally have aU come to much about the same conclusion. And it must be allowed immense pains have been taken to bolster up the results of an expenditure of _70,000, an expenditure that many mariners, shippers, and merchants arc quite agreed has been an almost useless waste of money. But it is impossible to convince absolute strangers to the place that this is the case when they can turn to '•'independent" reports of " eminent " men, all of which go to show that the existing works are tho only ones which were practicable. As we said on a previous occasion, the works that we have now were based on the supposition that it was impossible to get a, harbor at Napier, and, if we are not mistaken, it was Mr Weber who was tho author of that 'theory. If Mr Weber, or whoever it was who came to that conclusion, be right, then we contend it is absurd to spend any more money in extending the existing works, for it merely means throwing- so much more into the"sea. If, however, ho should happen to be wrong, the less we have to do witii the present works the better, for they have been founded on a false basis. Taking all the circumstances into consideration, we think the Harbor Board would have done well to have hastened the return of all the designs for a harbor as soon as the decision of the judges was known. On their arrival here the Board could have carefully gone through them with the assistance of its own engineer, and out of the many sent in selected those which appeared to bo suitable, aud submitted them for the approval of His Excellency the Governor. Sir W. Jcrvois has most graciously offered }iis professional services to the public bodies of the colony, and from his extended experience, his knowledge of the port and its requirements, and from the facilities ho possesses for obtaining personally or otherwise any further information ho might require, we take it that he would be a far better judge than anybody sitting in his office at London. Wo aro certain that His Excellency would have given every attention to a work that ho himself has moro than once expressed a wish to peiform, and wo aro equally sure that, whatever decision ho arrived at, would be accepted by tho people of Hawke's Bay as final.