The Daily News. THURSDAY, JULY 30, 1903. THE HARBOUR QUESTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 178, 30 July 1903, Page 2

The Daily News. THURSDAY, JULY 30, 1903. THE HARBOUR QUESTION.

| The most difficult question before the ' publio of Taranaki is ihe harbour question. The fact that (very ratepayer in the countiesof Taranaki, Clifton, S ratford, and Egmont, including the boroughs of New Plymouth, Stratford,) and Inglewood, the town districts of Waitsra and Opunak", the Waimate. Riding of'the Hawera County, including the town district of Manaia, part of the Eltham Riding of the Hawera j County, including the borough of Eltham, are ratepayers of the harbour j I distrior., causas the subject to have an importance possessed by m other ques j tion of local interest. We say local interest, but when it is considered that j nearly all the Government coal for the | New Plymonth-Wanganui-Palmerston section of the railway is landed there ; its importance to the mail and passenger services between Auckland and the rest of the colony ; that one-fourth of j the land fund of the whole of Taranaki is paid by the general government to the harbour fund, we might have said ' colonial importance. . Although the , harbour at the breakwater has claims lon Ihe Government not possessed by j any other port, and an excellent case ' can be made out in favour of tie GuvI ernment capitalising the land fund and j taking the harbour over, that is not the question that is agitating the harbour ratepayers at the present moment. The trouble is the attitude i to ba taken up regarding the Bill which the Harbour Board is introducing to j empower the Board to borrow a euf- , ficient sum to carry out the scheme of improvement recommended by the Board's engineer, and confirmed, after I cartful inquiry, by Mr Napier BeW, the 1 eminent marine engineer. It appears j to us that there is a good deal of misi conception regarding this matter on the [ part of country settlers, who seem to have the idea that it is town of Few Plymouth that is pushing for, and is to benefit by, harbour imp-ovaments, and the town alone, which is anxious to see the work taken in hand. As a matter of fact the demand for an extension of shipping faciliI ties has not come from the townspeople; but from the country and the shipping companies. Indeed we believe is will be found that the Stratford Chamber of Commerce was the moving agent in getting Mr Merchant's report, a deputation from that Chamber having waited upon the New Plymouth Chamber with the result that in response to a joint deputation from the two Chambers of Commerce the Harbour Board I instructed Mr Marchant to ascertain, I Ist, if it was possible to give accommodation to direct steamers; and 2nd, i at what cost. When it is considered that the town has no exports to speak of, and the present shipping is more than sufficient to bring ten times the imports arriving for town consumption, it will be seen that the town is sufficiently well served. Then as regards charges, the New Plymouth merchants simply add the charges on the goods they sell, and it is the consumer who pays, The population of Ntw Plymouth is oDly some 5000 out of a total of 38,000 in the whole of Taranaki, and allowing that half the people in the district are independent of the breakwater, which we take leave to doubt, it still leaves 19,000, or, excluding New Plymouth, 14,000 country se! tiers who wilt bnstit directly by lomriog p:-n '' 'Jei- if. - indirect benefit is jviry great, bscau-?e if chirges are i lowcrci at New Plymouth so that set-|*l«si-5» in "Vo-y pan of Taranaki get! '• ii ■ , u>;di, it - from New Piy-! • >• ;i or tuvugb the charges at the oth.>r ports being lowered, that is a benefit to those pirticipating in the reduction. There cannot be tbe slightest doubt bub that the visit of direct steameis to the breakwater must improve the position of Taranaki farmers, who will be brought in direct communication with tha nmrkeifi of tha world. Tlw viM quest-iocs a;p : Is it, possible, an .1 a wt.il!: VVV. |:»k.e it both fchuw queanicn ai'u satislact<>"ily hi. d dccisw.-Ivl tabtiwered by MWsrs Masvbaafc nrdi I Napier Eyll, The next qu&dtu® is: Is !

he improved harbour worth the cost ? We beliave this question would be at once answered in the affirmative if settlers were It ft to think the matter out for thfmselvcs ; but the enemies of the harbour bave no intention of allowing this, and are 1 aving no stone unturned to canvinae the ratepayers that tho reports of (be engineer are not to be be'bved, and in other ways injuring tho credit, of the port. If ratepayers, instead of listening to these misrepresentations would study the question for themselves, watch the regular running of the steamers, the class and siz) of the vessels visiting tho port, the entire absence of delays, the quantity of imports and exports, and tbfihenormous number of pissengers, wliff arrive and depart by the steamers, thtiy would soon learn tint tho-e interested in the welfare of other p >rts ara at ths bottom of the agitation against i the extension of the breakwater, and 1 that ic is not the welfare of the farmer I which they have in view.