The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). TUESDAY, JULY 15, 1879.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5707, 15 July 1879, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). TUESDAY, JULY 15, 1879.

The Chamber of Commerce have framed a Bill to provide : for the formation of a Harbor Board for the port of Wellington. The City Council, under the leadership of our worthy Mayor, now propose to prepare a rival measure. Inasmuch as many of our legislators may probably know very little, and care less, about either body, we propose to lay an outline of both schemes before our readers, showing the supposed advantages of each. Before doing so, we may remark that an attempt has been made to prove that the wharf charges at this port are moderate, because they are less than at Lyttelton. It has been apparently overlooked, that even though the wharf charges were less here than in any other port in the colony, it by no means follows that they are really moderate. In order to enable some of the other chief ports in New Zealand to compete with Wellington, a very heavy expenditure has been incurred, and it is absolutely necessary that the interest which has to be paid on the capital expended should be levied in some form or other on the business done in those ports. Though the authorities have done less, nature has done more for this harbor than for any of our great rivals, and the charges ought therefore to be lower than elsewhere. Fortunately for the colony, the Legislature foresaw the danger that there was of the Corporation regarding the harbor as the milch cow, from which they might derive a handsome revenue, and thereby effect improvements in the city at the expense of the colony, without imposing rates upon their constituencies. In the Wellington Loans Consolidation Act, 1876, a clause was inserted by which all monies derived from the wharf should be expended upon the maintenance or improvement of the wharf. After this clause came into operation the wharf charges were greatly reduced, and the City Councillors about that time thought it advisable to vote a salary to each and all of the members of the Council who undertook the arduous duties of wharf-committee men. They all accept the duty in turn, and are all paid accordingly. Some profit can be, and we believe is, made under the heading labor account. Labor on the wharf Is a heavy, charge, and is not so specifically entered as to make it by any means easy to say whether the labor charges on the wharf are correctly estimated or not; hints are freely thrown out in the Council itself that a profit is made by the Corporation under this head, and Councillors may be supposed to know more about such matters than ordinary outsiders. It is certain that the Chamber of Commerce would never have gone to the trouble and expense of framing a Bill and urging the formation of, a Harbor Board if the management had been good, the service prompt and reliable, and the charges as low as is compatible with efficiency. The Chamber of Commerce proposes to form a Harbor Board of eleven members—two to be appointed by the Government, one to be elected by the Chamber of Commerce, one by the City Council) one by the Hutt County Council, and one by the two Wairarapa County Councils jointly, and one by persons specially interested in shippingsuch as shipowners, "&c. Two members are to be also elected by the ratepayers of the city. The chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and the Mayor of the city to be entitled to a seat ex officio. Mr. Hutchison and the City Councillors are in the habit of referring to this, proposal as one to constitute the Chamber of. Col&merca a Harbor Board. It will be-observod that it might be with equal truth-described as a proposal to make the City Council a Harbor Board, as it is imperative that two of the members of either body should have seats on the Board.

. Up to the present the Mayor has not, we believe, been able to draft his Harbor Board Bill. He proposes to constitute the City Council a Harbor Board. At a Wharf Committee meeting, at which nine out of the eleven City Councillors were present, the Mayor expounded his views. He stated that he considered the present Council the best possible body which could be chosen to carry on the business of the harbor ; that two bodies such as the City Council and the Harbor Board were sure to clash, and that it would save a lot of quarrelling and bother if one body had the sole management. The only alterations necessary in the Act were, that in order to lighten the duties of the Councillors, four more members should be elected for the City Council, and that those who might be appointed to act as a Harbor Board should take the title of Wharf Committee, and should be well paid for their services. The other members of the City Council should have their duties specialised, and pnly those who were really qualified to perform the duties of Harbor Board men should be elected on the acting Wharf Committee. It is true that in the general Harbor Boards Act which was passed last session, the Legislature deliberately excised and excluded every clause providing for any payment of members of Harbor Boards whatever; but Wellington is such a favorite city, and is so much petted and spoilt by the Legislature, that possibly upon this occa ; „ sion also, if Mr. Hutchison’s Bill ever sees daylight, an exception will be made in favor of the city, or rather of the City Councillors.

The port charges proper are, we believe, at present collected by the General Government; they would fall into the hands of any Harbor Board which might bo appointed. On the revenue derived from this source, a profit of some £SOO a year accrues to the Government at present, and this amount would initself provide theßoard, if elected, with a sufficient revenue to cover clerical and other incidental expenses. Our own opinion in respect to the two schemes is soon given. We believe that the Bill of the Chamber of Commerce might well 'be made more liberal in its; composition and of somewhat wider scope ; in other respects it appears, to be a sound and creditable measure. The proposal of Mr. Hutchison seems to us a well-meant effort to upset the clause in the Wellington Loans Consolidation Act .which wo quoted above. The Mayor evidently considers that the city has a splendid endowment in the port, that all-comers should be called upon to pay toll for the benefit of the citizens. Wo prefer to believe that

the city holds the harbor as a trust for the rest of the colony. By a magnanimous disregard of present profit, by a careful fostering and nourishing of trade, and by adding to the attractions of the port by giving increased accommodation at lower rates than elsewhere, the trustees may succeed in drawing an evergrowing stream of commerce to our shores from all parts of the world, a separate and distinct Board with only the interests of the groat body of exporters and importers throughout the colony to consider, is far more likely to deal liberally with the trust confided to them, and to regard the interests of the port as of colonial importance, than any number of City Councillors elected to that office, because of their supposed fitcess to undertake duties of a totally different type.