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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4299, 31 December 1874, Page 2

The Wharf Committee of the City Council recommends that the wharf dues should be let by tender, and not l by auction as formerly. • The Council is to consider this report to-day. We trust the proposal will be rejected. There does not appear to be anything whatever that can be said in its favor, as against open competition at auction. At all events, nothing could possibly be urged as a set-off against the weakening of that measure of public confidence which the auction system has created. For this reason alone, if for no other, we should deprecate the adoption of the committee’s recommendation. There is, however, another matter cognate to the one in ha.nd, to which we shall briefly advert. We mean the term for which the wharf should be let. We strongly advise the Council to fix upon a short term. The tolls and dues should certainly not be let for a longer period than twelvemonths, because no one can tell the changes that may occur within a very short period. A year’s term would be fair to the contractor and tho public. The lessee would have his eyes open. He would know exactly what he was doing ; and from the growing trade of the port, and the extension of public works, persons willing to compete would do so without risk of loss on account of any decline in the traffic of the-port. At the same time, should the trade of the port increase to the extent that we have reason to believe it will do within a very few years, then we say the city, which paid a very long figure for the wharf, should participate in the revenue derivable from it. There are other reasons that might be urged against letting the wharf for a longer term than one year, but we think the one we have given is sufficient. Wo trust, therefore, that the City Council will, at its meeting to-day, consider this matter in connection with the Wharf Committee’s report, and act upon the suggestion we have now made in the public interest.