HARBOUR BOARDS AND COUNTY COUNCILS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIV, Issue 27, 1 February 1902, Page 2

HARBOUR BOARDS AND COUNTY COUNCILS.

1 1w view of the controversy now goirig o/i at Opunaku in reference to the desjfrablehess of getting a Bill through to ! f/orm a narbour board or relying upon rhe new County Council taking steps 'to get the Council gazetted a harbour board, a correspondent senda us the following, which should interest the ratepayers affected The Counties Act provides, " That Tftlie Council erects or constructs any quays, docks, pieis, or harbour works of any kind, in shall only be so in accordance with and subject to the provisions of the Harbour Act." Further, " In any place where there is no /Harbour Board the Governor, on the 'request of the council or any county bordering on any estuary or arm of the sea. . '. . may by Order-in-Coun-

oil gazetted declare that such council. . . . shall, from a date to be fixed in such order, exercise all the powers of a Harbour Board within such limits of such estuary or arm aforesaid as the Governor may define for that purpose. From and after the date of any such order, the County Council

-iforesaid shall be deemad to ba a Har- ! baur Board as if they had b«en conati tuted by special Act." And again : " For tho purpose of constructing any wharves or jetties, the Council may, j where there is no Harbour Board, or | where the Council has been appointed a Harbour Board, borrow money by way of special loan in the manner provided by this Act. Any Council appointed a Harbour Board under the provisions of this Act may, by special order, declare and define the part of the county that will ba specially beaefited by any harbour works, and mav j levy a special rate in euch district for the constructing and maintaining of harbour works, but no such rate shall be levied sava by consent of the ratepayers as provide!, in case of separate rates, and no such rate shall exceed in any oue year |th of a penny in tbi* £." Now for the Harbour Acts, which state —" No lan i shall be reclaimed from the sea or in any harbour, and no graving dock, dock, or breakwater shall be constructed in any harbour or in the sea except under the authority of a special Act, and the applicants for such special Act shall, three months at least before the session of tho General Assembly . . . depesit at tbtoffico of the Marine Department a olan ..." Further, "In any

harbour where no Harbour Board is i existence the Governor-in-Oouncil ma) authorise any local governing body or any person to construct hurboar works other than the reclamation of ]and from the sea or any harbour, or tbe construction of any graving dock or breakwater in any harbour or in the sea." Our co'respondent adds that he does not think there is any necessity for comment, except that it is very clear even after a county council has been gazetted a Harbour Board its powers are very limited.—Star,