AN IMPORTANT SUGGESTION.

Motueka Star, Volume IV, Issue 144, 6 January 1903, Page 4

AN IMPORTANT SUGGESTION.

To the Editor. Sir, It*is, indeed, gratifying to all those who desire to see this district brought into line with other progressive portions of this colony to note_ the advancement made during the last few years, and I feel certain that the live element in our population, which to some extent is already making its pretence felt in most of our forward movements, will soon wake up to the fact that the district has secured a most valuable asset in the endowment given the .Wharf Board, viz, the large j area of what is now mud flat, lying J adjacent to the harbor. While recognising that, with the present finances of the Board, it is utterly impossible for that body, which is now spending all its available capital (the accumulation of many years careful and economical management) in wharf extension, to do anything in the way of making the endowment a paying asset, yet at the same time it is possible for the Board and the people to give the reclamation of these flats their consideration, and if, as it is hoped by a large majority that the constitution of the Board is to be altered during the next Parliament, and the Board made an elective body instead of a semi nominated one, I have no doubt the people of the district who have taken over the control and liability of the wharf will soon realise the necessity of adding the large area now in -their possession-to that of the most productive land in the district.. Although I have previously mentioned the matter elsewhere, it is worth repeating, and that is, 1 was informed by the member for the district that the Government, or rather the late Minister of Lands, Mr John McKerizie, intended to move in the direction of re-? claiming the area on this side of the Moutere river as an experiment. Of com se, nothing can be expected of the Government now, as the whole of the Eats are now t e property of the people of this district, and it is for them to say whether that property shall be improved to a. paying point. It should be remembered that though but a small margin of interest on'expended capital may directly return to the Board as a result of their enterprise, yet the fact remains that the producing area of a limited district would he added to, and as a consequence the wealth of the community increased, and further, the wharf revenue augmented by the additional produce shipped. A great deal more might be snid in support of the proposition, but I think I have said sufficient to warrant the matter receiving the serious consideration of the people. I am, etc,. W. J. Moffatt.