THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1881. MR E. G. WRIGHT’S LITTLE GAME.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2183, 23 February 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1881. MR E. G. WRIGHT’S LITTLE GAME.

As our readers are doubtless aware, Mr. IS. G. Wright has recently been elected to the Lyttelton Harbor Board on what may he called the “ popular ” ticket— i.e., the redaction of wharfage rates on grain. It must be premised, also, that Mr. Wright represents in Parliament a large agricultural constituency. These two facts being stated, it is not hard to see how important it is to the political existence of Mr. E. G. Wright that the “ honest farmer,” “ the backbone and sinew of the country,” should apparently receive the utmost consideration at his hands. We say apparently, as it will be seen with some emphasis, because, really, as we shall presently endeavor to show, there is no consideration whatever for the farmers in the proposition to reduce the wharfage rates on grain. Apparently Mr. E. G. Wright poses, in the character of the farmer’s friend, before an admiring crowd of bucolics, who have a hazy idea that to reduce the rates of wharfage means extra profit on their grain to them. Let us just see how far this is borne out by the result of Mr. E. G. Wright’s popu-larity-catching notice of motion. The proposal is to reduce the wharfage rate Is per ton. Taking the average of forty bushels to the ton, we find the reduction will give the magnificent sum of onethird of a penny per bushel as saving. Now, this infinitesimal sum cannot enter into the price per bushel paid by the grain buyer to the farmer, so that, from this point of view, the consideration of Mr. Wright for their interest has no political outcome. Do the farmers save it in cost of wharfage to them P Again wo say no, and for a very simple reason. The farmers, as a body, are not shippers. It is true, that men like Mr. John Grigg or Mr. George Gould do ship direct on their own account. But these gentlemen are not the fish that Mr. Wright hopes to catch with this bait of reducing wharfage rates on grain. They know rather too much for this. It is the Hodges who farm email holdings that Mr. Wright aspires to benefit—the men who are now, by a tyrannical Board, ground down with excessive rates. Strange to say, however, when we come to look into the matter, these are just the men the reduction, if effected, will not benefit. They, to a large extent are under control of the grain buying firms, who really are the people into whose pockets the saving, if any, will go. It is just as well to put things plainly at once, so that there need be no misunderstanding, and we say distinctly that Mr. Wright’s proposal, if carried out, will benefit no one but the grain buyers. To say that the farmers will receive one iota of benefit is a delusion, and the sooner they recognise this fact the better. Of course Mr. Wright will not say that it benefits the grain buyers. It would not suit his book. If the proposal is carried out he will achieve a certain amount of popularity at the expense of a class who, for a whilo at least, will fondly believe that their champion has achieved something grand for them. Later on, they will awake to the fact that the saving, if any, has gone quite a different way. But this is not all. There is another phase of Mr, Wright’s motion in which not one class, but all are interested. The Board—of which Mr. Wright at the time was a member —borrowed a largo sum of money for the prosecution of certain works. It was then distinctly understood and promised to the debenture holders that the dredging works &<v, should he paid for out of revenue, and that nothing but the improvements specified would be charged against loan. Now a very largo proportion of the revenue of the Board —

out of which, as well as the cost of these dredging works, interest and sinking fund * has to bo paid —arises from wharfage rates. Given that Mr. Wright’s idea of a reduction of 50 per cent, at one swoop upon a single article is carried out, have not others, such as coal, timber, and general merchandise, a right to the same concession? By reducing the rates of coal and timber, general merchandise, and grain, in equal proportions, where would the revenue of the Board come from ? How could they keep faith with their English creditors and at the same time carry out the dredging works which are so urgently needed to make the port available as a first class harbor ? It is all very well for Mr. Wright to endeavor by means of a very ingenious kind of motion to glorify himself in the eyes of his constituents, the Ashburton farmers, but has he seriously considered the consequences which must follow if Lis ideas are adopted ? It [cannot surely he argued that grain has peculiar claims, differing altogether from other articles landed on, or exported from, the wharves of the Board to a reduced rate. This would be an absurd position into which a cute and wavy man such as Mr. E. G. Wright would never be betrayed. Therefore we are at a loss to see how he can over hope to carry such a motion. It does, as we have shown, nothing at all for the farmer, and would, if carried out, probably lead to a violation of the engagements entered into by the Board with the capitalists at homo. Perhaps Mr. Wright, seeing that his little game has been so far successful as to land him in a seat at the Harbor Board, will now withdraw the resolution of which he has given notice.