WELLINGTON HARBOUR BOARD.

Shannon News, 28 April 1925, Page 3

WELLINGTON HARBOUR BOARD.

MR H. TOLLEY'S ADDRESS

BOARD'S POLICY CRITICISED

.■ppinti tol l°' W ii lg ™ Uia *Ms were made lecently by Mr H. Toiiey, of FeildJ! lg ' 1S ** candidate for a seat on tiie Wellington Harbour BoardMr Toiiey said the Harbour of Wellington possessed great natural advantages and must Become, if it was not now, the chief distributing centre oi New Zealand, as well as the natural port of call for vessels passing between Australia and the Panama canal.. There was n Q doubt that the residents of the Harbour Board district owed a debt of gratitude to the men who. ui the past had with judicious enterprise, combined with forethought, sound judgment and great business skill, achieved th e present splendid position. He described the constitution of the i Board and said the combined district ol Manawatu included the Boroughs of Palmerston, Feilding, Levin, Foxshannon, and Otaki, and the counties of Manawatu, Oroua Kiwi-

tea, Kairaiiga, Horowlienua and' P<>hangina. This was a huge district an if elected he would use all means in his,power to have it simplified so as to minimise the cost of election which leH on the Harbour Board He mentioned that 12. years agoi he was a candidate, hut to avoid an election it was agreed that the representatives of the local bodies meet at Fending and come to an arrangement. As a result of. that meeting he was beaten by two votes. Hie considered the siting members of the Board had had la years ta simplify the method of election, and had not done so They should take the blame, for the cost of the election and not the speaker Mr Tolley explained that all per-' ! sons whose names were on the Boj rough or County rolls, had two votes. He asked them to give one to the sitting member they liked best, bnt to give him the other, and thus put m a new member and infuse some new

iiu,u ine jiunwur tsoara. SOUND FINANCIAL POSITION At September 30 last the income or tlie Hoard for th'j year was £433,070, and the expenditure £385,647, leaving a. surplus Of £47.123. Roughly the Board has assets of £2,000,000, and had debts of nearly £1,000,000, these figures revealing the very strong position of the Board. The Board obtained its revenue by the collection of harbour dues fr< m the ships and o ; wharfage dues by importers or users ol goods, and by payments by producers or outward wharfage for the us e of the wharves, and the facilities tor loading outwards on to ships of their produce. The revenue was thus obtained by a kind of indirect taxation, the thousand and one things in use every day, most of which passed over the wharves bavinp- wr,i,nrw/i mi

in them a, fractional charge which goes to make up the revenue of the Hoard. Every home in the district contributed to the revenue and so did every farm and business. All were therefore interesled in seeing that the •'nurd's charges were not increased, (hat economy was practised and that schemes /of ;lr;.rbour! improvement were not entered into unnecessarily i c- that would not prove remunerative when completed. BOARD POLICY CRITICISED. I

The General Manager of the Board reported' that "it is desirable to increase the equipment of the PQrt by providing a tug-boat and a floating ei'a,ne l'o r heavy lilts, neither of which will earn sufficient to pav capital charges on their cost," also the provision of a floating dock "will have to be faced." If elected to the Board Mr Tolley said he would strongly oppose the above expenditure unless it could he conclusively proved flint the development of the Port was being held up and that these things would pay in the near future. One improvement he urged was the provision of railway facilities at every wharf and shod. Queen's wharf today had not a single railway truck on it. A great deal of saving could be effected in calling- and handling if cargo could ibe put straight into railway trucks and sent to its destination up country. Such things as motor cars, tractors, oils, kerosene, fertilisers, and many other heavy goods co<uld be discharged direct into railway trucks and sent to any part of the railway district at considerable saving to all concerned.

UP-TO-DATE LOADING FAJCILHTIFS REQUIRED "On the King's Wharf there are two sots of rails provided running right down to the sides of the ship, some previous engineer of the Board put these rails on top of the deck of the wharf, instead of laying them as rails are laid at level crossings. These rails prevent trucks and barrows being brought right to the ship's side, to overcome this ijhe Board's staff bring heavy planks and lay them across the top of the raUs at every hatch Of the ship, thus effectively preventing any railway truck being sent along the side of the ship to load up direct country goods. Several of the officials aim others, working on the ships told me that this inconvenience and loss lias gone on for the last 15 years. One said that ho could only think tlial it was done to force the ship to use the Board's cranes at 9s per hour—instead of the ship's own gear. "The handling of hundreds of tons of fertilizers and other cargo is thus done in a most expensive, way. I want to see these rails converted into level' crossings, so that a truck can go alongside the ship at any time to pick up country cargo, saving heavy cartage costs, and the destructive handling that takes place every time goods are moved and stacked and loaded on the wharves.

REDUCTION IN FERTILISER CHARGES URGED. "As the Board shows a surplus of £47,423 it should be possible to make reductions in some of the charges. Twelve years ago I was one of those who suggested that the Harbour Board should encourage the producer. by /reducing the wharfage on fertilizers, and the Board did then reduce the rate to, i third;, 2s (id per ton. During- the war period it was increased again, and It now stands at 4s penton, the same flat rate that is charg-

ed cm all goods using the wharves. 1 contend that encouraging the use of] fertilisers is a, gQQd policy, because, we know that the use of them increases production, and there must' follow an increase of exports vrhiciV pay outward wharfage. This argu^' ment it will easily be seen, does not apply to such things'as drapery, fur-' nishings, or any goods that are not directly reproductive. May 1 say here that I contend that the .sitting representatives of the combined Manawatu could have, and should have raised this issue again some years ago, goon after the close of the we*r. "In my opinion these wharves belong to the people. The Board are the people's trustees. The Welling-, ton Harbour Board is a .big and powerful institution, and there is always the danger that these big public institutions overlook the fact that they' are really the servants of the produe- 1 er and the consumer.. • 1 "In conclusion I want to see the Harbour Board give the people of this District the maximum oi efficient service at the lowest possible cost. Goods either landed on the wharf from abroad, or railed down for shipment from the interior should reach their destination with the minimum of handling, and the fullest use should be made of railway facilities to this end."