CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 272, 24 April 1914, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE.

MISLEADING STATK.>iiiNTS.

(To, tho Kditor.) 1. Sir,—-With reference to your araWe . your issue of 22nd inst., under tne

above heading, and which criticises a letter by "An Old Shareholder of Mt. Egmont Freezing Works" appearing in the same issue, the New Plymouth Harbour Board for a period dating back some live or six years (if not longer), have invariab.y made the statement that their harbor would be. ready to receive

Home liners 111 about twelve' or eighteen months. The faci remains that regular Home liners liavo not come to New Plymouth and the Board's o'd statement is still tho same "in about eighteen months." In view of these misleading statements,'' do you consider it would be wise for those interested in the proposed Stratford freezing works to attempt to build their works before the berthing of regular Home liners at ivew Plymouth is an accomplished fact? It is useless to compare the coming arrival of the VValkure ivith tho ordinary carriers of New Zealand produce, as uie Walkure is of considerably less tonnage thai .hesmaller steamers at present tradiig between New Zealand and r.ng.andfaiHl ■tnese smaller steamers are very few and are being rapidly superseded oy yesscl* 1, considerably larger dimensions. Old Shareholder's" cautionary advice with regard to building works before the port ha 3 established a regular direct service is worthy of the mature con* sideration of aa interested in the proposal.—l am, etc.,

"FORESIGHT."

[Our correspondent is evidently not conversant with the conditions, or else belongs to that not altogether disinterested body with an insensate prejudice against the port. The chief reason for the delay that has occurred is"} the action of the shipping in departing from their original stipulations and demanding more and more ' facilities. Theso are held by those competent to judge to be unreasonable. Still the Board is complying vjitk their requirements. Another rtasonnfcr the delay is the alteration in the/plans of the Board whereby an "inner harbor" was substituted for an "outer karbor." The wisdom of the alteration has been conclusively demonstrated, but it baa entailed a longer time that was •right-. ally estimated. At the present time the harbor is in a more forwara condition than was the Timaru barber when the first frozen meat steamers called there. This is not our opinian, but the statement of New Zealand's greatest harbor engineer, Mr. Marchanfc, who happens to be engineer to both harbor boards. The Walkure, of course, ig a smaller vessel than the usual ltfpe of frozen meat vessel, but at the present moment it is possible to berth vessels, like the Rimutaka, as was shown fcy the. proceedings at the time of the strike. Surely if it is possible now in an emergency to accommodate a vessel «f thh character, there cannot be the slightest doubt that the harbor, the improvements in connection with which are being vigorously pushed on with, will be ready by tho time the freezing works begin operations in eighteen months' time. In any case, supposing the harbor works were by some ill stroke of Fortune destroyed, would the proposed co-operativn> freezing company be any worse off than the Waitara proprietary company, whick has to ligbter its meat to the vessels lying in the roadstead? Of course it would not. But then- need be no fear whatever about the harbor being ready for the biggest liners trading t* New Zealand long 1 before the co-operative worka are ready to commence operations. The point to be borne in mindl is that a certain - section'of Taranaki people don't want, for selfish reasons, tosee the Home liners safely berthed at Moturoa. But they may as well essay flhe task of stopping the tides as block-: ing the development of Taranaki'* deepwater port,—Ed.]