NEW PLYMOUTH HARBOR

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 93, 5 September 1912, Page 6

NEW PLYMOUTH HARBOR

AN INTERESTING REFERENCE;. In the course of his speech at Eltham the other evening, Mr C. Wilkinson, the Government candidate for the Egmont seat, said it had been his privilege to serve the public of Eltham and its district on the New Plymouth Harbor Hoard for several years, and during the past four years they had not had to pay a rate. Moreover, the probabilities wero that they would not have to pay one for the next four years, and if then, it would be very small. As a member of the Harbor Board he miglit claim to have been of service, and in stopping certain leaks (tho. details of which he would be glad to explain to anyone privately, but could not touch on from the platform) had saved some hundreds of pounds, and he had to fight hard for those reforms. When he first beCame a member of the Xew Plymouth Harbor Hoard it had been proposed to build a wharf further into the sea. necessitating a further extension of the breakwater, which plan appeared absurd to him. He went,to a lot of trouble in the matter and eventually proposed that the advice of an eminent 'authority should be obtaned, ami when this was got the proposed scheme was condemned. The speaker had been keenly criticised by many, and particularly by a Taranaki newspaper, for the policy he advocated in connection with harbor matters, but with the assistance of Mr Maxwell and others had carried through a policy that was too strong to be resisted, which was the one being carried out at the present tme. Having served them well and faithfully there, he now hoped for an opportunity to serve them in Parliament. (Applause).