The Evening Star MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4219, 4 September 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1876.

We are greatly surprised to see the action which is being taken by the Corporation m the matter of the Reserve for Wharves and Quays. Our readers will have observed that the Corporation have obtained the signatures of nearly 2,000 citizens to a petition on the subject, and have sent Mr Walter to Wellington “ to urge before the Public Petitions Com mittee the City Council’s view of this matter,” We seriously doubt the wisdom

of the Corporation in acting ithus, and caution them and the citizens against a course which may result to the injury rather than the advantage of the City. The proceeding of the Corporation is unwise for two reasons. First, it gives iudication of a grasping. and selfish disposition, likely to arouse a spirit of adverse inquiry on the part of our politicians, representatives of country districts, as to the title of the City of Dunedin to other reserves than that for wharves and quays, and the consequence may be that in seeking to retain it they may lose others to which at present no one disputes their title. But we question the wisdom of the Corporation in the second place, because we consider it the result and evidence of a short-sighted and narrow view of the situation, and the absence of a. proper appreciation of the importance to the City of the special work committed to the Harbor Board. Alter a careful examination of the records and a perusal of the statement of the City Council we do not see room for any reasonable doubt that the reserve now in dispute was originally set aside as a reserve tor wharves and quays. Nor can we find »“y justification for the allegation that the reserve has, by any subsequent action of the Legislature, been diverted from its original purpose. Doubtless, provision is made in the Dunedin Reserves Management Ordinance, 1867, by which “.with the ,sanction and consent of the Superintendent of the Province of Otago ” the Corporation may lease this as well as other reserves in a like position for a term not exceeding twentyone years, the rental to be “ municipal revenue.” But this provision was clearly made in order that the reserves to which it applies might be utilised by the Corporation until they should be required for the specific purposes to which they were originally dedicated, or for “like purposes of public utility.” So that, provided the Wharves and Quays Reserve has been let by the Corporation as provided by the Ordinance referred to, the Corporation will be entitled to enjoy the benefit of the rental till the end* of the lease. If, then, the reserve be required for the purpose to which it was originally devoted, it will naturally revert to that purpose, and its management should be placed in the hands of those whose special business it is to carry out the works for which the reserve was made. It appears to us, then, that the right of the Harbor Board to the control and management of the Wharves and Quays Reserve is indisputable, and that the claim of the Corporation cannot be sustained. But were the case less clear than it is, were there more room than there is to question the claim of the Harboi Board to this reserve, we do not think the Corporation would he wise in pressing it. Of all the public works now in progress in this City or Province, none is of so much vital importance to Dunedin as the great work committed to the management of the Harbor Board. The improvement of the harbor ; the opening up of easy, safe, and expeditious communication by water with the world beyond us is of the very first importance to this City. In anticipation of that, land has already been reclaimed, for which our merchants have paid high prices. Large sums of money have been spent in the erection of warehouses and offices ; spacious aud commodious hotels are built or being built; our railway system has been made to converge on Dunedin, so that our passenger aud goods traffic may be brought direct to the shipping port. That which is now needed to make all this available and profitable is the improvement of the harbor, so that the shipping may be brought to meet the railways and passengers housed in the hotels and goods placed in the warehouses in the least possible time at the smallest possible expense. When this is done the whole Province, the whole Colony will reap the advantage; but primarily and more directly will Dunedin feel the benefit. We then are of opinion that our City Councillors would better serve the interests of those they represent if they endeavored heartily to co operate with the Harbor Board, and render it all the aid and assistance they can instead of constantly regarding that body as one hostile to, and having interests apart from the City. To the citizens it is a matter of indifference whether the revenue derived from this particular reserve be administered by the Corporation or the Harbor Board, but it is a matter of vital consequence, not only to Dnnodin, but the entire Province, that nothing should be allowed to interfere with the speedy and efficient performance of the works necessary to the improvement of the harbor. Nor is it sound reasoning to plead that the revenue derived from leasing those reserves will tend to reduce City rates, as the investment of that small revenue in a reproductive undertaking like harbor improvement will so raise the value of property in Dunedin that the additional valuation will annually equal, double, or treble the rental of the'reserves. In every aspect of the case the action of the Corporation is short-sighted, narrow, and suicidal.