FOXTON HARBOUR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 884, 27 August 1910, Page 3

FOXTON HARBOUR.

PETITION TO PARLIAMENT A petition from the Foxton Harbour Board for financial assistance to enable it to properly deal with the Manawatu River and improve it for navigation has been presented to the House of Representatives by Mr E. Newman, M.P. for Manawatu, The petitioners urge that the revenue collected by the Railway Department, which controls the wharf, is over a year, but scarcely any money has been spent on the river. As a result of the neglect of the Railway Department, it is urged, the river is silting up, and the bar is worse now than it has been for many years past. Complaint is also made that the Railway Department has taken a valuable portion of the foreshore which was vested in the Board, and, without any compensation to the Board, handed it over to private firms, who are paying rent for it, whilst the Railway Department claims all wharfage from goods passing over this wharf. The Marine Department handed over endowments to the Board, the revenue from which endowments is and receipts from all sources during the year ended March 31st last, were 4s 6d, which revenue, it is urged, is too limited to allow the Harbour Board to keep the river in proper order. The petitioners urge that if the river is not kept in proper condition a serious loss to the district will result, and they ask that Parliament will grant ihe right of the wharf, and all wharfages to the Board, as this revenue should in all cases be spent upon the harbour or river. It is also urged that such wharves have in similar cases been rightly handed over to the Harbour Board, Failing this, the Board ask to be allowed to purchase the wharf from the Goverment, at a valuation of the present value of the structure, with no regard to the revenue derived from it. Until one of these alternatives is given effect to the petitioners ask that the Railway Department should grant it a substantial subsidy to enable the river to be properly dealt with and improved for navigation.