FOXTON HARBOUR BOARD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1828, 18 May 1918, Page 3

FOXTON HARBOUR BOARD.

THE LOAN PROPOSALS. A REMINDER BY MR. ED. NEWMAN, M.P. Mr Ed. Newman, M.P. for .Rangitikei, writes us as follows “I desire, with your kind permission, to remind ratepayers in the Manawatu and Kairanga Counties that the poll for the Foxton wharf loan takes place on Tuesday next, the 21st instant, and to urge upon them to gxercise their right and vote for the proposal. For ten years now the Foxton Harbour Board and its representatives in Parliament have been fighting for the possession of the wharf, and it would be a terrible disappointment 'to many, and a great misfortune to the district, if the loan proposals now submitted should fail owing to the indifference of a number of the ratepayers. With regard to the merits of the proposal, I wish to state that at one stage in the proceedings the Minister (if Railways gravely stated that in the opinion of his responsible advisers, the wharf was worth £32,000, and that owing to the constant increase in trade it was becoming yearly more valuable. Personally, 1 believe the wharf, with its rights and privileges, is worth £32,000, or even more, and it will, continue to increase in value as the district behind it develops. The loan proposals now submitted make provision for the payment of £5,000; the price fixed by the Royal Commission for the wharf, £IO,OOO for a dredge to work on the river, and £I,OOO for goods sheds,. In order to comply with the Act, it is necessary to take power to strike a rate, hut there is no likelihood that this power will be exercised, as the income from the wharf is a safe and sure source of revenue more than sufficient to pay interest and working .expenses. Evert since 1908, when 1 first had this subject brought under my notice, I have believed in the right of the people of Foxton and the district to own the wharf, and I fed confident that at the price now fixed it is absolutely a 'gift,’ and should be snapped up without hesitation by the ratepayers. All who are acquainted with the subject know this, but all have not had an opportunity to become acquainted with the subject, and it is for that reason that I venture, by your coui’tcsy, to appeal to the people of Manawatu and Kairanga, and the other parts of the Harbour Board district, to roll up next Tuesday and vote solid• for the Board’s proposals.”

Dear Sir. —As some ratepayers do not seem clear as, to voting, would you mind giving a prominent local in your paper to this effect. Kairanga. or other ratepayers resident in Palmerston N. may record their votes at any one of the Palmerston polling booths, and ratepayers generally can vole a( any booth in any part of the Harbour District most convenient to them, but it must be clearly understood that ratepayers on Iho roll have only one vote, irrespeefive of where their <)iiaJilication is, and (hose attempting 1« vote more Ilian once are liable to penalties as provided by “The. Local Elections and Polls Act, 1908.” —Yours faithfullv, w.'bock.