The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, July 16, 1914. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1272, 16 July 1914, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, July 16, 1914. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The Railway Department bases the value ol the local wharf on the capitalised revenue. Now, according the Harbours Act, revenues accruing from the port must be expended on the port. We know, of coarse, that revenue for years has been diverted to swell the earnings of the working railways account. It will be interesting, therefore, to know what view an independent tribunal —and it seems probable that Cabinet will consent to submit the matter to arbitration —will take on this point, Looking at the position as a strictly private business transaction, the Railway Department is justified in arriving at the selling value of the wharf. But the Railway Department is not dealing with a private individual or company, but a State department constitutionally set up to exercise the administrative powers which the Railway Department are usurping. As a State concern the Board should not be asked to consider goodwill in the transfer of the wharf from one State department to another. The equitable basis of transfer should be the value of the structure with added interest. When the arbitrators are appointed and evidence submitted no doubt these points will be clearly set forth by the Board. Arbitration will relieve the Government and the Board of a very difficult and vexed question and while both parties will have full protection an equitable and mutually satisfactory settlement should be arrived at.

“The prosperity of the Dominion is reflected in the Savings Bank figures,” said the Prime Minister at the luncheon to the Municipal Cenierence delegates in Wellington on Tuesday. He stated that he had just received a statement of the deposits and withdrawals for the month of June, 1914, The deposits in that month had amounted to /1,087,614 Is 6d, and the withdrawals ,£948,153 9s 9d, leaving an excess of deposits over withdrawals of ,£138,861 2s 9d. In June 1913, the deposits were ,£936,716 12s 6d, and the withdrawals ,£893,324 2s lid—a surplus of ,£43,393 15s 6d. The increase in the surplus of this June over the corresponding month last year was thus nearly ,£IOO,OOO. (Applause). This money was invested by the

Minister of Finance, chiefly by way of loans to local bodies and advances to settlers and workers, so that it went directly towards increasing the prosperity of the country. The prosperity of the Dominion was further indicated by the latest export figures. He had not been able to get those for the year ended May 30. This year’s exports for the period totalled in value as against last year—an increase of ,£2,122,843.