FOXTON WHARF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1591, 25 July 1916, Page 4

FOXTON WHARF.

(Concluded from page 3.)

That evidence surely is not enough for the judge to hang Manawatu on, but rather to hang the other fellow. It is in fact a definite and valuable comparison in our favour, because, on the face of it, it must be an honest one. Mr Howarth is the Wangdmu harbour engineer; But even if it was an untrue opinion there arc only two things which could stop Foxton in time becoming a better harbour than its neighbour: lack of money, and the lack of will to spend more freely than its neighbour. Given the mouth of a river opening into the sea, a Pierpont Morgan, a Sir Weetman Pearson or a Sir John Aird will build you any harbour you will pay for. If you want one or twenty liners you can have it. Holes are dug in the river side and the sea and river water fills them up, training walls sustain ihe banks, and locks, perhaps, keep in the water. Look at Zeebrngge. Brugge is the Flemish name for Bruges, and the inhabitants of that old town watched for years their canal meandering into the sea below BJenkenburgh. Bruges was the centre of the greatest weaving industry in the world at one time, and suddenly she awoke from her lethargy determined to restore her old prosperity, but above all lo cut out Antwerp, for there has always been jealousy with the Walloons, All of a sudden (possibly Avith German money) she started to build out a tremendous mole into the sea, to dig out berths for the very biggest liners; and the sand, which is almost exactly similar to look upon as Foxton, became the fashionable seaside resort of (he patriotic Brugeois. It cost £1,000,000 to build that mole. Only to-day there is a cable in the paper that Lake Washington City district has built a canal and harbour costing £3,250000 to berth sea liners! They don’t do these things to lose money. They do them to make money, for harbours are always a paying proposition. It is purely a matter of money and the will to accomplish. If this district decided to have a better harbour than Wanganui she could start to-morrow. Don’t let us make any mistake about that.

But, on the contrary, if this district likes to continue paying a River Board Rate, to continue in the Wellington Harbour Board rating district, to pay fid a hundredweight to Wanganui for sending on its heavy goods, and to pay a high railway freight charge for sending its produce and receiving its supplies from Wellington for ever, we can not prevent it. But we do offer a cheaper and a saner alternative. Here in New Zealand, and particularly in (his town, we are wont to imagine that with four picture palaces, some good buildings, a noisy bell or two and a few banks, we have reached the limit of imaginable progress; that we are IT. Yet we have the evidence of men actually living in the town that when they first saw Palmerston not a house existed. Can we not see that on the foundations they built we have only erected the basement ground plan and a little of the first storey? Look around the town and you will see, yet, some of the original single-storied shops wedged in amongst their later fellows. Do we imagine that is the last act? Can we not see that Wanganui being on the coast damns its future utterly except for the purposes of a seaport? The thing that can make Wanganui into a big town (taking the broad view of the future), is that we continue dealing with it, so that it can use its port for us. If we here want. Wanganui to be prosperous we can make it so by continuing exactly as we are. She is getting through Marton Junction the best trade of the centre of the Island when it lies slap at; her door. Wanganui means to heat us, and probably she will if we cannot raise a backbone in 12,000 citizens. Yet Foxton must, in time, reach a greater size than Wanganui, and be of greater utility, because the distributing business must follow along the line of railways. Every day interests grow up here, and grow firm here, which time can only

increase and render firmer. We have all the essentials except a good port. Wanganui has no essentials but a good port. Once Foxton starts working no one, let alone the three clever, honest and rightly respected old gentlemen aforementioned, can tell how big that port and district will grow. But it cannot help growing bigger than Wanganui, for it serves better land, by infinitely better railways. A port is bound down by its roads of clearance; just as a man is by his veins and arteries. A man cannot drink two quarts of beer if his veins and arteries can only deal with one quart. He must either refuse the second one or take it, and stagnate or burst. Many people seeking to improve their holding power are going through those stages now, just as Wanganui. .Meanwhile, Wanganui has the si art of us, but the people who gave it that start are the people in that town. The people who can pull Foxton back or push it forward quickest are ourselves. If we refuse to spread equally on all our shoulders a, small burden we can keep it back. But we are not going to accept that position. We have to remember that those who came before us gave us our chance in life. We did not. make ourselves nor did we make this city, so with that memory we can surely do our bit with a clear conscience for those who follow after. A\ e cannot take things away with us, or hide them, when we die, but we can leave them decently behind us. Foxton is positively indecent at the present moment. It is a starved, eye-sore, bleary-looking vagrant of a port sitting at our gates. Wo have to feed it, clothe it, give it work, and we are given our chance NOW.

What was the answer of Wanganui to the finding of the Royal Commission on our harbour? Did she get her politieal representatives (corresponding; to Messrs Newman, Guthrie, Field and Buiek) to protest with crocodile’s tears in their eyes that it would mean unfair competition, that the money could nol be found to meet it, or fill the air with hot, untrue, stupid lamentation? She did not. She immediately puton foot the raising of another loan in order to dredge out five berths for ocean liners —about, £200,000! She deserves to win, with a public spirit good for a reply like that. We need a similar man or two in Palmerston and Foxton. MEN, not. politicians piteously mewling about ns as if they were acting for a tribe of North American Tight-wads. There may he people in this district who will not pay a penny towards progress of any kind, but they are always present, and they do not represent public opinion. They only represent the opinion which keeps in touch with the fountains of politics, and which hears a thing only to say at once that it is “monstrous,” “ruinous,” or “going far 100 quickly,” and the other terror of the unimaginative. Mark this: Nothing that is morally sound is ruinous. The full use of a natural resource like a harbour is one of the primal basic facts of civilisation. THE RATING AREA.

The Minister for Railways accepts the finding of the Royal Commission, therefore we have to consider the provision tacked on lo the purchasing clause of buying the wharf for £5,000. That provision compels us to define a rating area “sufficient, to provide rates of at least £4,000 a, year,” before we can obtain to the right of purchase. Undoubtedly it was a sound finding for the Commission lo make this proviso, before letting the members of the Harbour Board assume a vei’y responsible and important undertaking. It knew perfectly well that once the public is made responsible for money, even such a small amount, as £4,000, which can be I’aised by Ad. rate at the most, it at once takes a, very much larger interest in the way that money, or business is spent or done. If; is able to control Ihe expenditure and influence the actions of the Board. Who knows but that the railway authorities may still he able to exert a certain influence! At any rate, it is not only a valuable check on recklessness, hut it affords security for the raising of a Joan. It is exactly what any hanker would insist upon lietore he would lend us money, or back our enterprise with an assured tone. Wellington, for example, has a, rating area, hut she will never call up a rate, because harbours, once they start, pay their

own way always. Wanganui had to raise a loan, and a heavy one, by rate, because she had very big ideas; she insists on doing at once what can be done very comfortably more slowly. .We cannot imagine that the members of the Foxton Harbour Board have any such schemes afoot, indeed, we know they have not, for they are rightly content to see what a dredge will accomplish in the way of keeping the harbour open, before anything else is done. The moment the Awahou, or a similar vessel, can make the passage with certainty, the future' of Foxton is assured; at present she often gets barbound. She is typical of the average coasting vessel to be seen tied up at Wanganui wharf, and five vessels of that kind have made Wanganui not. only a paying proposition, but have given (he port suflicinet confidence to go in for the real thing. In Foxton we cannot fly before we mm walk, but we do mean to walk now, and not crawl. Later we will run as fast as Wanganui wishes.

We are certain lo get the rale and get. (he wharf now, because the district, contains a majority of com-mon-sense. It knows that it can save the rale twice over in the carriage of its ironwork, machinery, manure, seeds, coal, Jinx, wool, and heavy goods.

Last, but by no means least, the harbour is a paying, sound, financial proposition at the present moment. It makes a profit of £1,500 a, vear, without even a dredge at work. With a dredge our rate will not he needed. But our word and vote ARE needed to buck the district up and set the lusty donkeyengines’ lifting on the quay side, hauling our goods about the wharves and ships. More railways will come, and we shall go —FULL STEAM AHEAD.