The Evening Star TUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4208, 22 August 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1876.

The dispute between the City Council and the Harbor Board the ownership of the Wharves and Quays Reserve is more interesting to the combatants than it is to the citizens of Dunedin at large j nor are the latter likely to be deluded by the cry that a wrong will be done to them if the Harbor Board succeeds in proving its title to the reserve. The real question at issue is one of fact; and should the result prove adverse to the Corporation it is quite rich enough in landed endowments to bear the loss ; nor, indeed, were its financial position less fortunate, could any right thinking person wish it to be made more wealthy by the wrongful detention of the Board's property. That the Wharves and Quays fieBerve, which consists of eighteen acres of valuable land in front of the tewn, was originally set apart for harbor purpeses, cannot be disputed. Its name indicates its destination, and the testimony of -old settlers goes to prove the same thing. When the reserve) was made, however, there was no corporate body in existence specially entrusted with the management of the harbor; and the land ultimately became vested in the .Superintendent, in trust for the purposes fur which it had been dedicated. In 1886 the Provincial «.'ou;:cil thougnt it to transfer this with other v«surve"- to the Corporation of Duuodin, though .fc took a year Liter to give that legal effect, as the Ordinance of >BGo was disallowed, because the clause dealing with the purposes to which the reserves were dedicated wa3 not deemed sufficiently explicit by the Governor's advisers. The point of the present discussion is whether the transfer of this particular reserve was intended to be absolute or merely a provisional arrangement pending the creation of a Harbor Board. Two questions are iuvolved, one legal in its character and the other equitable. The Corporation stands upon its alleged legal rights. It quotes the language of the Uunedin Reserves Management Ordinance, and says that it makes an absolute and unconditional surrender of the reserve to the Corporation, and authorises the revenue arising from the reserves to be used for general municipal purposes, destroys the special character of the reserve, and throws it in along with the general landed estate of the City. That the Provincial Council had power to alter the destination of the reserve seems pretty clear from the language of the Bth section of the Public Reserves Act, 1854, and of tho Public Reserves Act, 1862. The former enables Provincial Councils to change the specific purposes for which any re serve is held and to appropriate it to other purposes of public utility; while the latter empowers the Superintendent and Provincial Council of any Province "to transfer any lands now vested in the Superintendent to any Corporation, Commissioners, or other persons having corporate succession in trust for the like or any other public purposes to be specified and declared in such Act or Ordinance," &c. What is the precise legal effect of the Ordinance of 1867 i 3 one of the subjects under discussion. A newspaper, however, is not a convenient medium for the discussion of legal questions, and it would be rash to express a positive opinion upon a point which could only be authoritatively settled by the decision of a Court of Law.

The question next arises whether the Provincial Council intended to alter the character of the reserve, and to vest it in the Corporation absolutely T This is really the important point to be considered, because, if the object of the Council was merely to convey it to the Corporation as a temporary trustee until the rightful owner of the estate should appear, while, by accident or negligence, the conveyance was so framed as to vest it in the Corporation for ever, without even limiting the application of the funds derived from the land to harbor purposes, and the Corporation took advantage of the mistake, its conduct could only be described by one term, and that must be a very harsh one. We acquit the Council of any desire to do wrong in this matter. Its mombers are doubtless acting from motives of public duty, but they are standing on slippery ground, aud the citizens, for the sake of the good name of Dunedin, must take care that the title of the Corporation to thia reserve is both legal and equitable. Now, the equitable claim set up by the Harbor Board is this : It affirms that when the Wharves and Quays Reserve was placed in the schedule to the Dunedin Reserves Management Ordinance, 1867, there was a clear underotanding between the Executive of the day and the Provincial Council that the transfer to the Corporation was merely a matter of convenience and a temporary arrangement to be terminated when the proper time arrived. The Harbor Board was not then, it will be remembered, in existence, nor was its immediate formation contemplated. In support of this contention, certain remarks made by Mr Ge >hge Dpxcax, then Secretory for Public Works, are quoted, and the advocates of the Corporation do not, indeed, seem to deny the aftega tions of the Board in thii respect, but they affirm that the Council must be taken to have known what it was about, and that if it had i tended to leave the purposes of the reserve- unchanged, and to make the Corporation but a temporarj 7 trustee, it would have stated bo in the Ordinance, whereas the language of the Ordinance bears a contrary meaning. This is the only strong argument used on behalf of the Corporation. Something has been said about money having been borrowed upon the security of the whole of the municipal reserves, including the Wharves and Quays Reserve, and that if the latter were now taken away from the Corporation the credit of the City in the money market would suffer. Such a contention will not hold water for a moment. If it were correct, any trustee might pledge the property of his cestuique trust, and then say he ought to be permitted to retain it in consequence. Supposing one of the other reserves now held by the Corporation sheuld turn out to be private property, would the Supreme Court listen for a moment to such an argument, or would the General Assembly confer a fresh endowment upon the City to make up the original amount of security given to the public creditor ? This argument, however, is a mere bugbear. The persons who have lent money to the Corporation have done so, not because it possesses a particular acreage of reserves, but because they have believed in the general ability of the City to pay the <

interest upen its loana regularly and tho principal when it falls due 5 and the application of the rents and profits of the Wharves and Quays Reserve to the improvement of tho harbor will not lessen their confidence in the financial stability of the City. Still tho position of the Corporation is not without strength, and we should like to see the dispute settled in a manner better fitted to elucidate the whole circumstances of the case than an appeal to the General Assembly is likely to do. If it were referred to Judge Williams as arbitrator, with full power to decide upon the ownership of the reserve, according to the principles of equity and good conscience, the result, to whomsoever the reserve might be awarded, would be satisfactory to the citizens, and ought to be accepted with good grace by the losing parby.