FoXTON HARBOUR BOARD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1271, 14 July 1914, Page 3

FoXTON HARBOUR BOARD.

THE WHARF PURCHASE

QUESTION

DEPUTATION TO MINISTERS.

ARBITRATION SUGGESTED

A deputation consisting ol Messrs Hennessy, Nash and Holben (members of the Foxton Harbour Board), Stiles (Mayor of Foxton), Gardener (Mayor of Levin), Bryant (Kairanga County Council), Crabb (Palmerston Borough Council), waited upon the Prime Minister and Ministers for Marine and Railways at Wellington yesterday in connection with the wharf purchase question. Messrs Buick and Robertson M’s.P, were also in attendance.

After a lengthy discussion the Hon. Mr Fisher’s suggestion that the matter be submitted to arbitration was agreed to by the deputa tion and will now be considered by Cabinet.

[A full report of the deputation proceedings will appear in our next issue.]

Commenting on the deputation today’s Dominion says; “The people of Foxton have a real grievance in connection with the control of their wharf. This ancient and unpretentious structure is the property of the Railway Department, which, according to the members of yesterday’s deputation, derives some £I4OO in revenue from it. The money goes into the Departmental coffers, and the Foxton Harbour Board is left to face the problem of maintaining the port on what revenue it can scrape up from other sources, amounting in all to a little over £SOO per annum. The wharf is a profitable asset to the Railway Department, and the Minister naturally desires to obtain a fair price for it before handing it over to the local body. The Board has offered to pay £20,000 on certain terms, but the Departmental valuation is £36,000. The actual value of the wharf itself is put by a member of the Board at £3,000, and it will probably require rebuilding before long. Nothing has been spent on the harbour for a number of years, and the river channel has got into such a state as to be almost unfit for navigation. The position is a difficult one, and the suggestion of Mr Fisher that the points at issue should be referred to independent arbitration is about the only way out of the impasse. The members of the deputation acted wisely in accepting this proposal, and it is to be hoped that some reasonable basis for handing over the property will be arrived at.”