The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, November 30, 1912. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1033, 30 November 1912, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, November 30, 1912. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

At an early date—probably in a few days—the control of the Manukau Harbour will pass from the Marine Department to that of the Auckland Harbour Board, which has completed negotiations with the Railway Department for the purchase of the Onehunga Wharf, which Cabinet has sanctioned. The transferring of this wharf from one public body to another, has been accomplished without much apparent difficulty. W r c are not in possession of the facts as to the price demanded of the Auckland Board before it can assume control, and, while the Marine or Railway Departments would be justified in asking for a refund of capital expended to improve the port, together with interest on same —provided the revenue had fallen short of the repayment of such moneys—we do not think Cabinet is justified in imposing any further penalty. Each department should keep within its own sphere and Cabinet should do all in its power to rectify present overlapping. Why in the name of common sense should th.a Foxton Harbour Board, a public body constituted to control the local port, be asked to pay ,£20,000 or ,£23,000 to the Railway Department, before it is allowed to exercise the functions it was constituted to perform ? For yfiars the Railway Department collected the revenue of the local port, Without spending anything to improve the port or encourage shipping—for which it had justification, ns uo Board was then in existence -'-and transferred thousands of,

pounds to the working railways account —never earned by that department—but now that a duly constituted body is prepared to exercise the functions for which it was brought into existence, and expend the money earned by the port on the improvement of the water-way, it is asked to pay thousands of pounds to another public depaitment, which doesn’t care two straws about the welfare of the port for the privilege of getting into harness. Surely it is time this state of things ceased to exist in our enlightened country. A private company would not dare to treat the local port as the Railway Department has done and it is preposterous to think that the Government should allow one public department to demand a huge sum of money—for alleged good-will—from another public department over which it no longer has right of control, before it assumes its rightful administrative responsibility. Equity and justice surely demand, not only that the Railway Depaitment should transfer its control of the local wharf to the Eoxton Harbour Board without the passing of a penny piece, but that the Railway Department should also hand back to the Board some of the thousands earned by the port and transferred to the working railways account. We hope the Reform Government will justify its name, in so far as the Eoxton Harbour Board and the Railway Department is concerned.