New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 1875.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4413, 12 May 1875, Page 2

New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 1875.

Ouu exchanges, by recent mails, are unusually suggestive. They discuss a great variety of topics of more than local interest. The Otago Daily Times, for example, has a leading article on the report of the Dunedin Harbor Board, which deserves more than a mere passing notice. It would appear that the effort of the Board to deepen the harbor has been thwarted, for the past nine months, by certain wire-pullers who have the ear of the provincial authorities. Our readers will not forget the episode of the Forbury and Peninsula railway, and the singular aspect the whole transaction presented ; judging from what the Daily Times says, (and we believe with perfect truth and sincerity,) there are some phases of the harbor question quite as remarkable. On the 22nd ultimo, our contemporary wrote :

The Harbor Board is again before the public in a way calculated to provoke comment. The financial report which we published yesterday, although wanting perhaps in some minute details which we should be glad to see, yet presents the main features of the Board’s operations for the last year with considerable fulness. The first thing that strikes us is that the influential secret enemies of the Board have not been unsuccessful in their attempt to delay its work. Messrs. X, Y, and Z may congratulate themselves upon having been tolerably happy in the concoction of their plans, and will notice with much satisfaction that, if they have not been able altogether to upset the Harbor Board, they have delayed its work by some nine months. The Board was duly constituted last July, but it was nearly five months before it was put in possession of the jetty dues. The pilotage and port charges it did not receive until February, 1875 — while It is not yet able to levy dues on the Port Chalmers railway jetty. Notwithstanding the bold assertion lately made to the contrary, it will also be seen that the Board has not been placed in that position of residuary legatee to the balance of the unexpended votes in which it should have been put.

A letter in the Evening Star, however, puts the financial aspect in a much clearer light. From it, the public will learn that £IO,OOO has been paid by the provincial authorities on account of the harbor, for undertakings not authorised by the Harbor Board, one item, £2OOO, being for the -Peninsula steamer, which has since then been found utterly useless for the purpose, as indeed any one must have known at the time of purchase. The Otago Provincial Council, however, is likely to scrutinize this, and kindred transactions arising out of the harbor reclamations ; and the more thorough the scrutiny is, the better will it be for the community at large. It is impossible to hide anything like jobbery in a napkin. It is certain to be detected, and we may state that the history of these transactions is well known outside the bounds of the province of Otago. But to continue. The Daily Times writes :

The work of deepening the harbor is one of such notable utility that disappointed contractors and unfriendly politicians must not be permitted to interfere with it. We have groat confidence that by dint of exposing the secret influences which have been brought to boar against the Board s work, their efforts will be hereafter rendered nugatory, and a little plain speaking was never more necessary than with regard to the determined opposition shown in certain quarters to the Improvement of Otago Harbor. Whether ships should be able to come to the Rnttraystreet Jetty £s a question not only for Dunedin, but for the whole country. No doubt it will in the first instance benefit the city ; Dunedin will be the gainer most plainly and immediately. On the other hand, Port Chalmers will be a temporary and partial loser, by a certain portion of the traffic passing thus directly to head-quarters. We believe and sincerely hope that the Port itself will not suffer permanently, and that the increase of traffic will soon make up what she ma, Y first lose. There can bo no doubt that ultimately the entire province will gain by the large saving upon all imported goods, caused by the need of but one handling of packages.

We go further than our contemporary, and state that the deepening of the upper harbor of Dunedin is a work of colonial importance, and that it must not be delayed by any malign influence whatsoever, Now that our contemporary has undertaken to rake the muck-heap of jobbery which ho admits has accumulated

around him, we hope and trust he will do the work thoroughly. If necessary, he should name the guilty parties. One cannot soften the skin of a rhinoceros by rubbing it with kid gloves on hand ; and the clique of “disappointed contractors ‘ 1 and unfriendly politicians ” to whom he refers will care little for any indirect allusion to their proceedings. Nothing will bring them up standing but a thorough exposure. Where is the use of appealing to the country districts for moral support when the Daily Times might put his foot upon the intriguers at once 1 It has simply to state facts, and give names, and the province would rally round it, Avith the exception of the disappointed “ring.” But when it labors to show the money gain it avouUl be to the province to reduce transport charges by deepening the harbor, and apologises in the following fashion for so doing, it is very clear that the moral force of the article is lost. Thus, the Daily Times : “We must apologise for “putting so plain .a fact forward, but “ underhand machinations, bred of dis- “ appointed selfishness and petty local “ jealousies, are best met by the simplest “and plainest statements.” These are best met, indeed, by the plainest and simplest statements ; but that has yet to be made. However, there is yet hope. The Daily Times adds :

We look with every confidence to the Council to express a strong opinion upon this matter, which is one of provincial, we may say, national, importance. Wo trust that the representatives of the people will take means to stop the improper and expensive obstruotiveness of which the Board has had reason to complain. Among other matters with which the financial report of the Board deals, is the need of providing a sufficient revenue to enable the harbor works to be carried on without sacrificing its endowment, or paying interest upon borrowed money out of loans. This is necessary, as a piece oi sound economy, and the Board need not be afraid of showing its balance-sheet when it makes its claim, since we have not often seen a great public work more economically managed. An attempt has been made to throw discredit upon the method adopted to procure the new dredge. Certain interested persons, disgusted at seeing so toothsome and luscious a morsel going past their greedy mouths, have spent a good deal of energy in trying to show that the Board has made a bad bargain with Messrs. Kincaid, McQueen, and Co. This sort of attack means simply that we wanted the commission for purchasing a dredge in England, and we are much disgusted at not making a good job out of it.” We have ample evidence in our hands to show that the Harbor Board exercised a very sound discretion in purchasing a dredge upon the spot, and we wish to draw attention to the effort to blame them, because it is the last and most obvious sign of the personal greed of which we complain, which animates the opponents of the Harbor Board in their mean policy. We speak strongly on the matter, because this sort of attempt to worry a public body into giving over certain bribes, in the shape of well paid jobs, is not unfamiliar, and is assuming somewhat large proportions. Let it be understood that there are some who oppose the Board because they disapprove of its work upon public grounds, as in the case of the representative of Port Chalmers. There are others who are disgusted because they have not received their accustomed douceur, have not been bought off by employment. The good sense of the Council will, we are sure, prevent their being led astray in this matter, into making any confusion between the public advantage and the satisfaction of personal cupidity. To expose an attempted job is always useful, and is never more useful than In the case of the opponents of the Harbor Board.

Well, the public will at all events expect the Provincial Council of Otago to supplement the Daily Times’ article. It is high time that strong measures were adopted, for undoubtedly our contemporary is correct in stating that the “attempt to worry” the Harbor Board to ‘ ‘ give over certain bribes, in the shape “ of well paid jobs,” to which it refers, “is not unfamiliar, and is assuming ‘ ‘ somewhat large proportions ” in the locality where it is published. There are many honest outspoken men in the Otago Provincial Council, who may be expected to take action in the matter. The colony, as we have said, is interested in this work. The commercial and mercantile position of Dunedin depends upon its completion ; and we trust there is enough public spirit left in the Southern capital to trample under foot the influence of those who would, for their own selfish ends, mar its progress, or impede its efforts to develope its growing trade and industries.