Will Somebody Move?

Patea Mail, 19 May 1882, Page 3

Will Somebody Move?

The harbor question is drifting again, and time is important. Let us not have another hurried splash when activity is .too late. If a borrowing bill is to be got before Parliament this year, it should be put into shape with nil speed. Much local discussion will be needed to bring all parties into agreement, before the bill can be drafted. Public meetings will have to be held—one if not more—to fix the amount for which borrowing power shall be asked, and to settle the ticklish question of a rate or no rate, on country properties, and the other ticklish questions of the rating area outside the borough, and the amount to be levied on country properties as compared with a borough rate. The fate of last 'year’s bill seems to have cooled the ardor of some reformers, and no wonder ; for that was a bill asking twenty thousand acres of land as endowment to the harbor, and the Government refused to sanction the endowment even of twenty acres, because Patea was only one among many harbors that, had bills before the House. The endowment clause. being struck out, that bill must die still-born unless new vitality were infused by inserting a rating clause with borrowing' powers. That proposal was eventually made at a public meeting in Patea, convened t at the end of the. session by only one day’s notice. It was proposed to levy, a harbor rate on the township (or on the. borough when formed.) But there was not i time to give to that proposal, even if town residents had‘agreed by majority, because four weekly notices required to be advertised in the ratiiig district, in accordance with Standing Orders of Parliament. It was found that Parliament would rise in the very next week, and there was a difficulty in giving four weekly notices before the House rose. So the hasty project tumbled to pieces. Experience should teach wisdom, or at least caution. The first lesson seems to bo that time lost in the early days ot the session cannot be f made up at the end. Time is being lost now over this new borrowing bill. It may be said the prompters of the bill are fighting shy of it * only the difficulty., is to know who the promoters are. The bill has no putative father,- as yet., Ginx does not acknowledge his baby. It is matter of doubt whether .the bill is a bill, or.only a shadow cast before. Those who are to be rated have a right to early and full notice of what this bill is to be. They want to know, yon know. They are not allowed to kribw all that passed at the recent conference, because it was supposed to be private—a sort of preliminary chat before holding a public meeting. Yet having bad a certain Warning of what is coming, they want to know.the worst. Is there any reason why, They ‘ shouldn’t ? A private conference does no harm, if followed quickly by a public meeting: but to hold such a conference on a public matter Hke : the harbor rate, and to keep the affair mysteriously private for weeks, is too objectionable. Surely * no' one who attended that conference could .have expected that, after adopting a resolution, no effect would be given to it by not calling: a public meeting. It is like trifling with a grave and; important subject, it seems to us - that the proper and only body to promote a harbor rating bill is the Harbor Board. The Patea Shipping Company started the movement as a natural sequence to< the wreck, of their steamer. The Harbor Board took it np, and carried a resolution in favor of borrowing on a rating security, and also for reconstructing the Board. The acting Chairman of the -Board,- in the absence of, Mr Con tits, called a conference of residents... to give shape to the bill before submitting its proposals to a public meeting. The conference dealt with the rating question,. and recommended a ; proposal for public discussion. Now -we : want' the , public discussion. Why arc we not toliave it ? The onus of rating in. a particular, manner should hot rest on any individual. The proposal should be publicly discussed; on its riierits,.and ;The settlers who would be affected by a rate are particularly* entitled to fall and carlj irifprhiaijoa oh this -proposal, .and., not to: [have it hanging oyer ] them; as iif some jmneighborly advantage : were sought to be .obtained] t by /postponing ;=thsmatter, till late in the session. This long delay ■has nothing to explain or justify it. The delay is caused apparently by want jof a proper initiatory force. The Harbor Board has taken the public responsibility of promoting a bill; .and it is the Board that should carry it forward. But what is the Board' doing ? It met on Monday and transacted ordinary business, bnt oh this bill for improving the harbor the Board did nothing. This harbor question should bo taken up seriously, or' be seriously left alone.,