South Canterbury Times, THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2624, 18 August 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 1881.

SECOND EDITION

A xumueu of meetings are to be held in the Patea district to strengthen the hands of the New Plymouth Harbor Committee. As already reported, the Committee have recommended that the Taranaki Harbor works be abandoned. It is generally believed that Parliament will adopt the recommendation, and thus put an end to one of the most iniquitous jobs which has ever disgraced the Legislature. In a previous issue we expressed an opinion that the Taranaki Harbor Board would never levy a rate to pay the interest on the borrowed money, and that it was certain that the colony would have to undertake the liability. It would be mere nonsense to urge that the bondholders should only look to the local security. The £200,000 loan was sanctioned by the Parliament of the country, and if the credit of New Zealand is to be preserved, the interest must be paid. The English creditor cannot be ex-

peeled to make a nice discrimination in the matter. It is sufficient for him to know that Parliament had endorsed the loan by its sane ion. It would not be the first time that the colony, to save its credit, lias had to take over local liabilities. With regard to the TaranakP Harbor Board Loan, it is stated that the residents in the rural parts of the provincial district strongly object to being rated for harbor works only calculated to afford shelter to coasting steamers. The report of Captain Johnson, Nautical Adviser to the Marine Department, is to the effect that that is the only thing which would be accomplished by proceeding with the harbor works, and that too, only for steamers coming from the North, Of late years vessels travelling on that coast are not numerous. Besides, it is the general opinion that better and more easily available shelter could be afforded at Oponake, However, the most important aspect of the question is, that the Taranaki Harbor Works from the fn’st met with strong opposition from the districts in which the most hnna fide settlement had taken place. But the votes of Messrs Carrington and Kelly were valuable at the time, and, as a consequence, Taranaki obtained a largo landed endowment and borrowO t ing powers, with authority to tax settlers who would not in the most remote degree be benefited by the expenditure, ami who did not care one rush whether the port of Taranaki remained an open roadstead or not. These settlors now see a prospect of a happy release from an unjust burden. If they refused to pay the Harbor Board rates, no doubt the stigma of 1 repudiation would be attached to them. Still, as we previously said, there would be small probability of the Board exercising its rating poweis. But in default of payment of interest it would be quite competent for the colony to step in and exercise those powers. The subject of a harbor for New Plymouth is one which intimately concerns ceitain parts of the colony. The New Plymouth people succcecdod in obtaining a large slice of the public estate and involved the colony in a liability of £200,000 for the more purpose of employing labor in the neighborhood of the town. These facts are perfectly well known, and it has been unfortunately the case that all harbor schemes have been linked together in tho minds of members not specially acquainted with the circumstances and capabilities of other places which seek the aid of Parliament to enable them to make harbor improvements, so as tc afford a ready outlet for the surplus products of the colony. The exports of Taranaki up to tho present have been almost nothing. A contemporary states that during the past ten years all the exports from Taranaki have been : Bran, 5 tons, value £ls ; wool, value £1712 ; sawn timber, £527. Howeve!-, a reference to tho statistics of the colony shows that for the ten years from 1870 t 0.1870 inclusive, the total value of the exports from that Provincial district was £3085. The value of the exports f ora Canterbury for tho same period amounted to £12,51-1,857. In 1870 the population of the Taranaki province was returned at 17 !9, and in 1879 at 10,215 —a remarkable instance of a people living and incensing solely under Government expenditure. Such substantial gifts as the £200,000 loan and land endowment for haVbor works and the war expenditure have up the present enabled the Tarauakians to jog along pretty comfortably. But with all the help in the shape of Government expenditure, the resources of the country of which New Plymouth is the outlet remain undeveloped. If Parliament adopt the recommendation of the Committee of Enquiry, Taranaki will cease to be held up any longer as the shocking example of how money is frittered away in useless and impractieab'c harbor schemes. A correspondent of a contemporary states that a Committee of the Legislative Council lias reported favorably on the Tim am Harbor Bill, and that it will now be discussed on its merits. That is precisely what we contended for all along.