The Hokitika Guardian FRIDAY, NOV 10, 1922. THE GREY HARBOUR INCUBUS.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 November 1922, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian FRIDAY, NOV 10, 1922. THE GREY HARBOUR INCUBUS.

When addressing bis meeting at the Opera House on Wednesday night, Mr Steer, the Reform candidate, took all the discieilit to himself for including Westland County and the interior Boroughs of Kumara, Hokitika and Ross in the Greymouth harbor rating area. He asked the Commission to include the whole of the area as for as .lackson Ray (not Mount Cook as he mentioned on Wednesday night). He appeared rather pleased with this, because he was at such pains to say the Greymouth hurbtu was such a good paying proposition, and there, apparently. should he some halo of glory reflected over all districts included in the harbor rating area! But the natural question arises, if tile harbor is the safe financial proposition Mr Steer affirms, why the anxiety to rope in other districts whose interests in the Grey harbor is almost negligible? Air Steer was at pains to say the rate would not !k> levied and the Hon. Michel asked a leading question or two on the point to have the position emphasised. But Mr Michel will recall that the tale about not enforcing harbor rates has been told before and the folk have been disillusioned on the point long ago—a fact of which they have a yearly reminder as the local harbor rate is collected. Apropos of the latter aspect, Mr Steer’s reference to the fact that portion's of Westland County and the Hokitika and Ross Boroughs are already rated, did not show much evidence of justice in his mind, nor of any consideration of fairness when it came to a question of enlarging the area of the Grey harbor district to include more rateable territory! Mr Steer was good enough to sav t’’at the fact the people referred to were fated already was their inisfi rp no! It would appear Mr Steer can adopt rather disingenuous methods in i. is conduct of public affairs. The Commission which included the Westland area in the Grey harbor district, modifying Mr Stool’s request but sliglitlv. was a Reform Commission,

and the- public will recall when Mr Murdoch acting on behalf of the people. asked for an appeal against the ivo-edcre and derision of the Commission— the request was refused. This was not an equitable attitude. and shows how the harbor rating incubus was forced on tbo people at tbo suggestion of Mr Steer and confirmed by tbe Commission. As to the justice of that decision it was contested in the public press at the time. The facts are that the enlarged harbor rating area has to carry a debt in tbe expen-

i diture of which the people of this district had no voice and derived but little benefit. It is preposterous to sav that the l>eople as far south as Jackson Bay as Mr Steer demanded I should be called on to pay equally to

the Greyniouth people, for instance for tile past expenditure. In Greymouth practically all the lienefit of the expenditure of the huge ■Minis was derived and daily there is hotli direct and indirect benefit to the town from the expenditure which it is not possible for outside places to enjoy. Not only was . it an injustice to include districts ratI ed already, but the inequity was accen- ! touted by the fact that the rate if struck is to be a flat rate, and will be the same in the town of Greymouth as on the farm lands of South | Westland which will be sending their i dairy produce and stock through the Arthur’s Pass tunnel, and not using the port of Grey. In an aside, Mr Steer had something to say about the possibility of raising a loan in 1921 to pay off a maturing debt. No doubt the lenders will require tangible security for advancing the money, and that will mean a rate. Mr Steer might think it is not necessary to-day to levy tli© rate, but who can say in a decade or less what the position will he, and loan rates take a good time to pay off the principal. What the people urged here, and what the Board is doing at present, is inising its income by wharfage charges, and if the outlook is ns bright as Mr Steer states, why not have carried on on these lines? But tbs tunnel traffic is going to dislocate the shipping trade to Greyinoutli, and Mr Steer was not taking any chances when he took a leading part in pushing on to the people as a whole a share In the liability of the future as to the maintenance of the port of Grey when thp Midland railway traffic disorganises th n harbor revenue Mr

Steer was looking ahead to possibilities when he took that step.