HARBOUR BOARD RATE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3946, 23 May 1929, Page 3

HARBOUR BOARD RATE.

KMRiANGA COUNTY COUNCIL’S PROTEST. COUNCILLOR. SMALL BARKS UP THE WRONG TREE. At yesterday’s meeting of the Kairanga County Council, a communication was received from the Foxton Haibour Board requesting the Council to make provision in their estimates for a Harbour Board levy, Which would not exceed £ll7. Cr. Small stated that the council had no news of what was happening on the (board, though it had a representative on it. He questioned whether the board was any good at all. It appeared that, without the consent of the ratepayers, the board had purchased a 35-year-old steamer at a cost of some thousands of pounds. No doubt the rate which it had struck was an aftermath of the transaction. The speaker could not see any way in which the board was a benefit to the county. He felt that the council should get. in touch . with the board and ascertain what was happening and also, in the future, to keep a. close eye on the work being done as a precaution against the levy growing into thousands. Cr. C. Anderson, in endorsing the remarks of the previous speaker, said that from the beginning he had condemned the board right and left and had been roundly condemned himself in return. No one else, had seen the position in his light, but now that a rate had been struck, they were taking notice. He had every confidence in the.council’s representative on the board. The councillor was pleased that at this late stage, the board was being condemned. Cr. Moody stated that he remembered the discussion in the council when the Haibour Board was first mooted. It was explained at the time by the movers in the hoard’s formation that its revenue would be such that a rate would not be struck, an assurance to this effect was given the council. Cr. Small: “If the £ll7 has to be paid, let it be paid under protest.” The discussion then closed.