The Daily News. TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 1914. THE HARBOR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 220, 17 March 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 1914. THE HARBOR.

Vestorday the New Plymouth Harbor Board made a pronouncement to the effect that the harbor will be ready for ocean 'liners in eighteen months' time. This was by way of answer to an inquiry made by the promoters of a cooperative freezing works which it i 3 pro posed to establish somewhere between Stratford and New Plymouth. T! i. members of the Board 1 caTinot Dc accused of being over-sauguine. Probably in the light of disappointment in the past they are taking no chances, and .keeping well on the safe side. How much they are is shown by the fact that in case of emergency the officer in charge of the harbor is prepared to guarantee the safe and efficient berthing of an ocean-going vessel of the size of the Rimutaka, whilst a Home steamer like tke Walkure, carrying a cargo of 5000 tons for New Plymouth, will be berthed in a month or two. The Superintendent of Works, a very cautious man, stated in November that fourteen months from that date they would ke able to carry out the work required of the Board by the shipping companies. The Board, in its pronouncement, acknowledges that work has been proceeding at a greater rate than the superintendent calculated upon It will thus b6 seen that the Board is taking an extremely conservative view *f the position, and that perhaps it would have been justified in considerably narrowing the margin of time given as to when the harbor will be ready.. The original requirements of the shipping companies have already, as a matter of fact, almost been complied witn; in a few months they certainly will have been. The point occurs, when present requirements are satisfied, will the shipping companies continue to ignore the claims of the port? Ab the chairman of the Board said yesterday, the more improvements made to the harbor the worse the companies cater for our trade. The southern service is totally inadequate and unsatisfactory. The Union Company are masters of the situation, and seem more concerned about consulting their own convenience and interests than those of this community. We arc being back-streeted by the shipping companies as we have been by the Government in many ways, and we can hope for no permanent improvement until, as was pointed out by Mr. Maxwell yesterday, we have boats of our own. But our people do not seem prepared to help themselves; they are satisfied to go on as they are doing, meekly submitting to what it suits the interests and convenience of the Union Company to provide them with. They have no idea—at least they have not yet manifested it —of demanding their rights and insisting upon obtaining the*? like other communities. The solution is the initiation of a service owned and controlled by the people of Taranaki. It can be done, were the people alive to their own interests, without difficulty, but it demands leadership—a personality that will go through the provinco showing how every settler and business man would profit by a more frequent and regular service between New Plymouth and the South. Soun the big boats will be here. There will be not. a little transhipment to be done if the trade is to be conducted in a spirit of progress and enterprise. A local steamer service will then be a necessity Are we going to depend for the success of our port upon the totally inadequate services provided by outside concerns that have no direct interest in tba welfare or development of the harbor? Or, are we going to follow the example of Waitara, Patea, Wanganui, and Nelson—to mention the nearest ports—and be independent of the big shipping companies and cater for and foster trade? Surely we can.