The Daily News. SATURDAY, APRIL, 11. OPPOSITION TO THE HARBOR BILL.
The Opunake district possesses at least J one opponent of the New Plymouth liar, bor Bill who has the courage to publicly propound his views on what he 110 doubt | believes to be iu the interests of his iellow ratepayers. On Wednesday aSL Mr. A. H. Moore, of Opunake, addressed a public meeting "to consider the Opunake Harbor Bill with a view to endeavoring to obtain relief for the coast district." In other words, the meeting was for the purpose of opposing tht borrowing proposals of the New Plymouth Harbor Board. The Government nominee. Mr. D. J. Hughe-, was present to ;jive his assistance, but it proved to be illusionary so far as eiieouraging the promoter., i>| lln> project were concerned: thai, however, by the way. Mr. Moure is evidently a financier of a new type; he is n » supporter of posterity bearing a shine o| the cost of perman-
ent works built mainly for their benelit. lie Minis fault with the Board not h;'\ing raled the district in the past lo the fullest extent of its powers. Mad such been done he contends the whole loan would have been wiped out bv this time. We scarcely think so absurd a line of argument calls for reply, and it may safely be left to the good*suusc or the ratepayers to say whether tiicy would prefer the policy Mr. Moore would have pursued, or the Board's reduced rate. Mr. Moore, unfortunately for Hie case he champions, shows that lie is far from being as familiar with the proposed Bill as his activities would, seein to indicate. In commenting on the fact that Waitara was being allowed to escape responsibility for its share of the old loan, he went to the trouble of quoting figures to show, to his own satisfaction, "that the voting in the Waitara district would have a material effect on the question as to whether a new luan was to be raised or not," and inferred that the Board has left Waitara out of the Bill for that reason.
Mr. Moore is evidently unaware that the Hoard has no power to include Waitara in the Bill for the new luonev required and that therefore Wa'itara could not, under any circumstances, he called upon to vote upon the Bill. The figures that Mr. Moore had gone to the trouble of preparing and quoting at the meeting in support of his line of argument, were, in this respect at least, based on a false assumption begot of ignorance of a subject he sought, to show he .was conversant with. As the speaker's statements went, without contradiction at his meeting, we must assume that his hearers were likewise in doubt as to the actual position regarding the exclusion of Waitara, and we may be pardoned if we once again briefly state the facts. Under the Waitara Uarlwr Act that district, while still liable for the unredeemed portion of the expiring loan, cannot be saddled with any further borrowing on account of the •New Plymouth Harbor. The position that then presented itself was that if the Hoard were to raise tile Jl2.)0.IKI0 or 131)U,I)00 ii-ked for, separate loans would have to be negotiated. The lirst would be for approximately ll:!.j,imo to redeem the expiring loaii, and would have to be secured over the whole district, including \\ aitara. A further loan would then have to be raised over the district, excluding Waitara, for the extra CIUS.OUU required. It was further found that Waitara could not be included for its share in the Jiew loan proposal* without levying the statutory level rate of three-farthings over the whole liarlwr district. 'Waitara merely esca|H's its share of the liability for the old loan because the Board, and consequently the rest of the Harbor District, would be worse oil' were it included in the proposals, ill*. Moore may endeavor, I if he chooses, to dispute the wisdom ot Waitara's exclusion from the economic standpoint, but to base his opposition on a hypothesis that is by law excluded, he but intensities the weakness of liis case.
Mr. Moore's faulty knowledge of finance is again exposed when he assumes that, because under the present proposal the iioanl can show that no late will need to lv levied, a -imihir fortunate condition would still exist were an area of the value of CI.000,111)1) exempted to allow of an Opunake harbor district being lornied. Does he think that the Hoard could reduce its security by, roughly, one quarter, ami obtain the money it requires on the favorable litiik now e\ peet eillt will be 11 niciiiliei ed thiit at the last meeting of the Hoard, and at the instigation of Mr. Thomson and others of the ''country party," a resolution was carried to the cli'ect thai the Bill would be withdrawn if altered in any vital point. That proviso, designed to protect the country ratepayers, has now been construed by Mr. Mo&e as an instrument designed for the express purpose of defeating the Upunake Hill, for, lie puts it, "if the Opunake Hill were passed previous to the New Plymouth Hill, the latter was to be withdrawn—a most unjustifiable action.'' And the meeting was so shocked at the Hoard's perfidy, and ill sympathy with Air. .Moore's timely exposure, that with one voice it ejaculated "Hear, hear!" With Mr. Moore's scheme for the prosecution of the Opunake harbor proposals we shall not deal at present further than to say that more will be gained by the two districts endeavoring to pull together than bv adopting Mr. Moore's "stand and deliver" attitude. On the whole, the meeting gave little indication of the feeling of the district with respect to the New Plymouth Hill, for out of an estimated attendance of fifty, fourteen voted in favor of the motion to oppose the Harbor Bill and eight against. 111 conclusion, we will repeal our firm belief, Mr. Moore's opposition notwithstanding, that when the country ratepayers have thoroughly understood the new proposals and realised that il menus the extinction of the rate they have lieen, and still will be liable for if the old loan is merely renewed, their verdict will be almost unanimously in one direction—no rate.
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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 96, 11 April 1908, Page 2
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1,043The Daily News. SATURDAY, APRIL, 11. OPPOSITION TO THE HARBOR BILL. Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 96, 11 April 1908, Page 2
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