HARBOR RATE.

Patea Mail, 26 May 1882, Page 3

HARBOR RATE.

TUBI.'C —-v > ~«■ A..tepayers in the Patea harbor district, convened by the chairman of the Harbor Board, was held last evening in the Harmonic Hall. Most of the larger property owners in the town were present, and shout a dozen country settlers, chiefly from Whenuaknra block. The meeting, however, did not seem large in numbers. Mr S. Taplin was voted to the chair; and referring to the importance of resuming the harbor works, said be was willing to be rated for such an object to any extent within reason. Mr Contts, chairman of the Harbor Board, explained that this meeting was

convened, in response to a desire ex-

pressed at a recent conference in Patea. said: I may tell yon plainly that ”£it will entirely depend on your action in this matter whether there will be anything done in improving the harbor or not. The Board are in a considerably better position financially than for some time past, but they have no funds for resuming the harbor works. lam entirely at one with the proposal for a rate. The late chairman and I have been at one on this; I have often mentioned to him that I was willing to be rated. The Board’s revenue from rents now amounts to £B2l 8s Id ; the wharf dues are £4OO net after paying working expenses. Pilotage and sundries bring in £4O a year ; making our funds on the credit side £1261 8s Id. Out of that sum we have to pay £IOBO for various services and charges; leaving an estimated net balance to the good of £lßl a year. Therefore it will entirely depend on yon whether the Board are to be put in a position to carry on the harbor improvement works, which have hitherto been of snch advantage to the town and district. This meeting will not bo binding, bnt the Board will be guided by what is said and done nt this preliminary meeting. When a bill is framed for the House, all the particulars will have to be published four weeks at least in the district; and yon will have ample opportunity to see whether it is a right and just bill. Mr J. Nicholson, Whennakura, who kept interjecting remarks, said: I suppose you will be gnided by the town ratepayers. This is only a town meeting. Chairman; The advertisement says it is a meeting of ratepayers in the harbor district. Mr Nicholson : I have seen the advertisement only once. It is not a proper notice. Mr Aitchison ; It is the wish of the Harbor Board to afford every opportunity to country settlers and others for considering this rating question. It is a good omen that the chairman of the Board is willing to be rated for • harbor improvements. The railway works are being pushed on rapidly towards completion ; and in view of that, the Board wish to be ready for the coming change by commencing some fartber work at the heads. I move: “That it is desirable to further improve the entrance to Patea harbor; and with a view to accomplish

this, the member for the district be ashed

to introduce a bill into the House to A empower the Harbor Board to borrow to be levied on the borough and district in the following manner:—Class 1 to be the borough of Patea, at a rate not to exceed Is in the pound ; claas 2, a radius, of not more than three miles from the borough boundary, not to exceed 6d in the pound ; class 3, lands beyond the area of class 2,' but to be included within the boundaries of the Whennakura river on the south and the Manawapou river on the north, not to exceed 3d in the pound.” I think this will be the simplest mode of classifying the lands for rating purposes, and I wish the town and country people could arrive at some amicable arrangement on this question. Mr F. O’S. M’Carthy: Extend the borough.

Mr Nicholson; What'do you want with the country at all ? Do without it. Mr Aitchison : The borough is hardly strong enough to do the work itself.

Mr Nicholson: Then leave it alone,

Mr W. Gower: If you are afraid to go to the country, stick to the borough.

Voice; Do without the town altogether. Mr Nicholson: We always did do without the town, and we could do without it to-morrow.

Mr Aitchison: On the same principle the town could do without the country. Mr Nicholson: All right. Mr Aitchison: That state of things would be going back to the Robinson Crusoe style of thing. (Laughter.) Mr Sherwood protested against these interruptions, and asked that the speaker should have a fair hearing. Chairman : I must ask you gentlemen to give each speaker a fair hearing. Mr Aitchison went on to argue that the port and town had been a great advantage and convenience to settlers, both for trading purposes and socially ; and the better the port was made, and the more the town grew in size, the better would these things be to all settlers within the harbor district. He urged that increase in the value of country properties is caused mainly by harbor facilities, and hoped all would try to agree to be rated in a reasonable degree.

Mr R. C. Tennent seconded the motion* and said ; The first thing I would ask yon to look at is that the improvement of this harbor is a matter of vital importance to this town, and also to the country district. x Mr Nicholson : No ! no !

Mr Tennent: Along this coast, extending five or six hundred miles, there are only about four natural harbors. A good many persons appear to have this view, that being only a small place, we are going to remain as at present. I have seen this town grow in about six years from three or four hundred people to 1600. At the same rate of progress, this town will be a place of 10,000 inhabitants within a few years. It depends on the energy and industry of the people to bring that about. If they choose to be backward in everything that they are asked to help forward, then the town will remain as small as it is ; but if they have courage and forethought, the town will progress. You have seen the great benefit that has resulted to this town by establishing the Patea Steam Shipping Company. (Interruption.) It has been very much the making of the town ; and of course that is also due to the improvement of the harbor, and to the persistency of those who advocated improvement. Having a considerable amount of property here, I should dislike to be rated ; but if you will point out any other way in which we can get the harbor improved, then I should be glad to see it done without putting our hands in our pockets. But how are you to get say £20,000, from the Government or from anybody? I saw it advocated in an evening paper that instead of a harbor rate we should go in for a loan. Well, as a rule capitalists refuse to lend money except upon security, and at present you have none to offer. The only security available would be a rate ; and if we want a good harbor here, we must be prepared to pay something for it. The second point is that even in a selfish view it is a great benefit to all of us to have a good harbor here. An increased value of £4 or £5 an acre is put on surburban lands at present on account of being near to the town and port. If that increased value be put on lands within two or three miles of the town, I submit also that a proportionate value is put on lands further back. It is all very well for some gentlemen holding large properties to stand by and reap the benefits without helping in the work ; but we want you to join with us in contributing towards making this a good harbor and a populous centre, to serve as a market for your produce and a cheap inlet for your supplies. The speaker made some other remarks, and concluded an excellent, speech amid applause.

Mr C. F. Barker : I am convinced it will be necessary to improve this harbor if the town and district are to prosper as they ought to do. I agree with the motion, except that 1 would suggest that the rating and mode of valuing should be treated the same as in the District Rail-

ways Act, that is, rale each property in proportion to the benefit received or expected from the harbor improvement, irrespective of distance. In that way, town and country lands would be rated in the ratio of increased value. Mr Nicholson : Define where is the benefit to be derived.

Mr Barker : There are plenty of competent men who could settle the proportion of benefit. I will move an amendment to that part of the motion referring to rating areas, and alter thus : “ Ist, lands receiving or supposed to receive immediate and direct benefit from the construction of the harbor(and here I would say there is a great deal of land near the borough which will receive as much or perhaps more benefit than some land within the borough) ; “ 2nd class, lands receiving or supposed to receive a less direct benefit ; 3rd, land receving only a benefit incidental to or derived generally from the improvement of the harbor,” (A fourth class was added, but afterwards struck out.) The amount of rate mentioned in the motion would thus apply not to areas, but to classes of land ; and I think that would give more satsfaction, as each property would be rated according to the actual benefit received or supposed to be derived from harbor improvements. Mr Dale seconded the amendment, and said it would be a fairer mode of getting at the value, and would be a simple plan when once understood. Settlers residing near the port, and even further away, are deriving great benefits from the town and harbor ; and they ought to consent to be rated for further improvement. The Plains trade and most of the Waverley trade must go through here when the rail way is opened. Auckland could not beat Wellington in cheapness. The lands proposed to be rated in the resolution would represent a value of about £22,600. Dividing them into three classes, and taking £B,OOO as the value of the first class (the borough valuations being about £8,600, and increasing each year), you would get £4OO at Is in the pound ; the second class, also about £B,OOO, at 6d would give £2OO ; and the third class, about £6,000, at 3d. would give £l5O ; these making in round numbers £7OO a year, sufficient to pay interest on a loan of £IO,OOO. The Harbor Board have about £2OO in excess of present expenditure, and that amount would pay a sinking fund on the loan at 2 per cent, per annum. In the town he believed the people are nearly unanimous on the question of rating.

Mr Nicholson ; I have another resolution to propose ; that is, that the whole county be rated if we are rated at all. I think the borough should do what is required here. They have built a cattle wharf, and 1 say if all the live stock that have been shipped away were given to the Board, they would not pay interest on the money sunk in that cattle wharf. Therefore I say Patea is worse—there is more risk for vessels coming in than there was before you began throwing away money on harbor works. There has not been a sailing ship here for some time. They dare not come since you put a breakwater, there. What is the consequence? It is all S.S. company. All we want done for us in the country will be done by the railway. If yon want to rate us in the town, I and my family who are pretty well in are willing to be rated there. I will guarantee that there are not ten tons of goods sent on the railway to Waverley, now that the line is fixed near the sea. I can get goods in Wanganui cheaper by 20 per cent, than in Patea. I can get coal delivered in Hawera at 41s, and here it is 605., There is your harbor 1 With few remarks, I wish to sit down. It is only a town benefit. In fact I was far better off when I had not a road or a bridge in the place. If you spend £20,000, it will not do any good. ]We shall have the freezing process by and by, and that will all go by rail. Mr Barker : No. !

Mr Nicholson : I have seen the freezing process long before you were born. (Laughter.)

Mr Sherwood said .* Mr Nicholson has proved to his own satisfaction that the harbor has rained the district, and that he would be better off without a town at all ; and having reduced everything to chaos, he puts his hand in his pocket and says he is willing to paj r hia fair share. I ask him what he considers his fair share towards completing the ruin of the place ? (Laughter.) Mr Nicholson : If the country people are willing to be rated for this harbor, I say T will pay my fair share. As to your railway to Waverley, there are only two settlers it ever touches. We settlers on

the Whenunkura will not cotno to Patea at all. We shall have a station pext to Waverley, and we will send everything to Waverley and Wanganui. I tell you that straight.

. Mr Sherwood : You have said that the cattle yards cost £I7OO. They have not cost £2OO. The returns the Board are getting from that new wharf are paying a handsome return—over £450 a year on an outlay of £I7OO, as you say.

Mr Dale : One result has been that the Board can work the wharf trade with less labor than I could at the old wharf, and they make more out of it. Mr Nicholson : Because you employed any amount of loafers about you. What were the wharf charges when you had it ? Tell me that. : c *

Mr Dale: What were the freights in those times you speak of before the breakwater was begun ? Mr Nicholson : I suppose about 60s. I paid 26s a hundred for tongued and grooved timber, and now I suppose you put it in at 14s.

Mr Tennent: I should like to ask, him how the Patea S.S. Company has prevented other boats from coming here ; and whether the company has helped to ruin the place by reducing freights from 50s to 15s ? ’ Mr Nicholson : I don’t think it worth while to answer that question. I cleared out of the company just in time.

Discussion of a similar character was continued at great length. Mr Sherwood protested against the idea that town residents have banded themselves together at any time to injure country settlers in any way.

Mr Barker’s amendment was put to the vote, only two being for it, the mover and seconder. It was declared lost.

Mr Gower moved, and Mr McCarthy seconded, that the whole county he rated. Asked to explain what this meant, Mr Gower said he meant to extend the third class of land in the motion to the county boundary—Waitotara. Mr M’Carthy objected to second it in that form. Mr Palmer seconded the amendment.

After discussion, it was put to the vote, and about 7 settlers were for it. The show of hands against it was large, and the amepdrnent was lost.

Mr Gibson moved to alter the southern boundary in the motion, making it same as the provincial boundary to the confiscated line, instead of Whenuakura river. This amendment was agreed to, and the motion for a rate as first proposed was put to the vote, and there were about 20 for it and 1 against. Many did not vote. Motion declared carried.

Mr Adams then proposed That the present constitution of the Harbor Board is unsatisfactory; and that our member be requested to bring in an amending bill to give effect to the following amendments : that the constitution be as follows, 1 member to be nominated by the Governor, 4 to be elected by the ratepayers of the borough of Patea, 1 by ratepayers in Patea East road district, and 1 by ratepayers in Patea West road district." Mr Gibson seconded, and the motion was carried unanimously, with little discussion, the meeting having lasted till nearly 11 o’clock. Thanks to the chairman closed the meeting,