HARBOR BOARDS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 194, 20 September 1909, Page 3

HARBOR BOARDS.

SHOULD ALL MEMBERS BE ELECTIVE t . The Harbor Board oa Friday negatived Mr. Wilkinson's proposition that the delegates to the Harbor Boards' Conference should support the Oamaru remit that all members of harbor boards should be elective. The debate on the motion was not without its humorous 6ide.

la moving his motion, Mr. Wilkinson said he was sure the Government nominees on the Board -would prefer to be elected by the ratepayers. Durin» the morning, whilst the Board was discussing the principle of payment of chairmen, they had heard a lot about the evolution of democratic ideals. Hjre •was a chance for the democrats to act up to their speeches. Mr. Maxwell, in seconding, said there was a very general misconception in the minds of ratepayers, who considered the Government entitled to nominate members in return for money paid to the Board. As a matter ol fact, the money came from an endowment o'f the old Taranaki Provincial Council. Mr. Hughes (Government nominee '•, whilst not agreeing with the motion, said he "didn't care a tinker's curs;'whether hj« was on the Board or not. Mr. Wilkinson: Get on bv election. Mr. Hughes: "ifes, if I opposed you M get on, anyway. If Mr. Wilkinson had been a Government nominee and had helped as much to get the Harbor Bill through as he (Mr. Hughes) had done——

Mr. Wilkinson: Helped it! I thouo'rt you tried to block it! °

Mr. Hughes: If you had done a3 much ag me i n getting the opposition to t : ic Bill removed you would be satisfied that a Government nominee was some good.

Mr. King -was of opinion that tha Board's revenue from the sale of Crown lands, whether tht result of provincial enactment or not, entitled the Government to nominees on the Board. The harbor would have been in a tad way without the "land fund."

Mr. Wilkinson, replying, Aid that this was an important matter, and the fate of the harbor vitally concerned the ratepayers twenty thousand times more than It concerned the Government, ■which had far too much representation on this Board and on many other boards as well.

The motion was lost, only the mov;r and seconder voting for it. : The Board's delegates will therefore oppose the remit.