The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, March 7, 1914. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1217, 7 March 1914, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, March 7, 1914. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The negotiations for the purchase of the local wharf by the Harbour Board from the Railway Department, for which purpose the Minister for Railways visited Foxton ou Thursday last, are uo farther forward. The wharf is under offer to the Board for the sum of ,£28,000. The Board cannot raise this amoum until a rating area has been defined and pledged as security for the loau. Certain districts In the suggested area object to be included as they are already within the Wellington Harbour limit. A Bill conferring rating powers upon the Board was introduced into the House last session but, owing to certain opposition, was withdrawn. Deputations have waited upon successive Ministers in an endeavour to convince the Government that the wharf should be transferred from one public department to another praclically free of charge. But the Board has been told, time and again, that if it wants the wharf it must pay for it. If the Govern meut were dealing with a private company we could understand such obstinate bartering. But why the Board should be asked to pay ,£28,000 to the Railway Department for a half-rotten structure, upon which the Railway Department has spent comparatively nothing, also usurping the powers and privileges of a governing body, constituted to control the port and robbing the port of thousands of pounds which should be expended in improving the waterway, but which is wrongfully diverted to swelling the revenue of the working railways, is a puzzle the solution of which is beyond the pale of common sense. Years ago the wharf was erected by the Public Works Department and a Board constituted to govern and control the port. Lack of interest and foresight ou the part of our then settlers allowed the Board to die. The Railway Department, with its station alongside the river front, automatically collared the wharfage dues, but didn’t care a tinker's curse about the river, or whether the port was kept open or not —nature was allowed to run its course unassisted. The Marine Department paid the services of a pilot. As years went on shipping increased, and improvements were required in the waterway. The river was also encroaching upon private property. A deputation waited upon the then Minister for Marine (the Hon. Mr Millar), touching these matters and he advised the deputation to form a Harbour Board and control the port, at the same time assuring the deputation that the Marine Department would be only too pleased to transfer any rights it had to the Board. After much effort the Board was re constituted and as a result, and despite the fact that it is deprived of its principal source of revenue, the port has improved and shipping facilitated 1 At the same time the Railway Department continues to fatten on the wharfages which rightfully should go into the coffers of the Board for the improvement of the port. The Railway Department is adamant. Chairman Heuuessy has exhausted patience and argument in trying to convince successive ministers of the iniquity and injustice of the Railway Department’s attitude. He fails to see why posterity should be taxed and the port handicapped in order to pay .£28,000 for a structure which has served its day, and for certain rights which belong to the Board. He contends a new two-berth wharf and sheds could be constructed by the Board for ,£SOOO, alongside which the Railway Department could not refuse railway facilities. Would it not be better for the Board to find ways and means to erect such wharfage, and so get rid of the Railway Department’s iniquitous demands ? lu a future issue we will express Mr Hennessy’s views on this phase of the question for the public’s consideration.

Thk Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout) in his address to the Grand Jury at Nelson recently, referred to the decrease of juvenile crime in New Zealand. He quoted statistics showing a general decrease Irom 44.25 per xooo of the population in 1887 to 28,35 in 1911, and 29.9 in 1912. He thought that it was necessary for him to say this, because some seemed to think that there was an increase in youtbtul crime. The decrease in crime shown could only be explained by our rational system of education. We now feit that we were one community, one nation, and had one national lire; and figures quoted showed that our youths were far better than our fathers were, and were less criminal and less immoral. This, from the Chief Justice, will hit both the Denomination School and the Bible-iu-Schools Party

good and hard. We have never agreed with those who contended that our system of free, secular and compulsory education was responsible for godlessness in the rising generation. Those who have passed through our State schools compare than favourably both from a spiritul and moral point of view with those who educated in denominational institutions.