The Daily News. SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1914. MR. CONNETT AND THE "NEWS."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 26, 20 June 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1914. MR. CONNETT AND THE "NEWS."

At the Harbor Board meeting yesterday Mr. .1. B. Connett took exception to an article appearing recently in these columns, entitled, "A Converted Chairman," in which it was stated that he had been converted from the "outer" to the "inner" harbor scheme. "'I do ol'ject," he said, "to an article which first credits me with views which I did not hold, and then congratulates me on changing my mind and coming to the point of view I have held all along." We would be very sorry to feel we had done Mr. Connett an injustice or placed him in a false position by anything we had written. We certainly do believe that Mr. Connett was not in favor of the altered plan and that he tacitly opposed it. This belief is strengthened by a perusal in our files of the reports of the meetings held after the return of Mr. Connett and Mr. King from England. The whole tenor of his remarks as reported then was antagonistic to the action taken by the other members, though he certainly did voice his objection to a "dog's hind leg kind of wharf," at the same time advocating the lengthening of the wharf by 200 ft, which other memsers opposed, on the ground that it would bring the end of the wharf dangerously near the breakwater and seriously interfere with the berthing accommodation on the inside. Still, we are quite prepared to accept Mr. Connett's present assurance that he has always been an advocate of the "inner harbor," and can rejoice with him in the-success that has attended the departure from the original scheme, which, had it been carried out, undoubtedly would have proved a great mistake.