Gisborne’s “Sink”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 164, 1 October 1927, Page 1

Gisborne’s “Sink”

Money for Harbour Commission Sought (THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON Friday. A commission to investigate and report upon the past expenditure of the Gisborne Harbour Board on the construction of harbour works, and to decide whether or not expenditure has been excessively wasteful or unnecessary is desired by 669 ratepayers of the Gisborne Harbour Board rating district, on whose behalf Mr. W. D. Lysnar presented a petition to Parliament to-day. It is stated that there are good grounds for believing that there has been extravagance in the construction of outer-harbour works for which the Harbour Board was given authority to raise £750,000. Much of the work, it is said, has not been completed or proceeded with. Other allegations are: That a slipway estimated to cost £5,000 has actually cost £16,000. That the steamer Monowai, bought for breakwater purposes for £3,000. proved completely useless after being placed In position. That £BO,OOO was spent on the development of a quarry from which no adequate quantities of stone are available for the work. That £5,000 was wasted on the manufacture °f concrete piles for a wharf which Mr. T. W. Furkert, Public Works engineer, has recommended should be abandoned. That £3,000 or more was spent on repairs to the tug Pelican within 12 months of her purchase for £3,475. Petitioners believe that a considerable saving in expenditure could have been made had the board let the works by public tender, in which event the estimates would have been cheeked by public competition.