WAITARA HARBOR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 261, 14 April 1915, Page 8

WAITARA HARBOR.

I THE IMPROVEMENT PROPOSALS. I The Waitara Harbor Board is see"-'"" to borrow £13,000 with which to ; .* prove the harbor entrance, which i- ••;■- |tai« periods of the vear is hardh- iiavi-' ; gable, ft is thought that a small'dredge i will keep the river entrance free and ; most of the money is required, to' pur- | chase one. Ihe board is holding meetings at tho. various centres to explain its I proposals to ratepayers. On Saturday alternoon the board met the ratepayer's of Uruti, and last evening those of fikorangi._ To-night a meeting will be held at Huirangi, to-morrow night at Tarata and o» Saturday night at Urenui. ' | At the Uruti meeting Mr. Charlei ! Musker presided over a small but rei preventative meeting. The chairmwn of | the board (Mr. James Hine) addressed - thu meeting. Ho eutlined tlia enormous dilliculties faced by the own in its early stages. Some time in 18S0 or early in 1881 the board: borrowed money from two or three sources. The first loan was raised by debentures privately subscribed, and 1 had been fully repaid. Tho further amount was obtained from the Goyernment. Soon afterwards a. ware o,f depression swept over the eountry, . and matters were aggravated in this i district by the New Plymouth Harbor | Board having to levy and collect rates oh town and district, Waitara being affected by even its harbor endowments having to pay. He was not speaking antagonistically, to New Plymouth, but placing unvarnished facts before the meeting. The board was placed in such a position , that it had. to make default in regard j to its Government loan. The position j was outlined before the late Mr. Seddon, it being pointed out to him that the board had to pay rates to another board, the town being similarly ' affected. Mr. Seddon saw tho iniquity of the position, and promised that neither principal nor interest would l:e, ever asked for. This pnttwAe waß faithfully kept, later, an effort was I made to establish a harbor district for ! the Waitara Board, and a measure was placed before the House. It was strenuously fought in both Chambers, but it became law. Mr. Jennings, then mem- , her for the district piloted the Bill I through the Lower House, and for his efforts on that occasion ho earned the thanks of the district. Ratepayers were , still liable to New Plymouth for that I board's rates. Soon, afterwards, the New Plymouth Board desired to borrow on fresh terms, and to scciira a fresh sum of money, altogether up to £300,000, and they were compelled | by virtue of the existing circumstances j to eliminate the Waitara district from liability altogether. Our position waft thus largely improved, but we still had j our old debt staring us in the face. i The Government was applied to, and : there were refusals to wipe out the amount, but the beard refused to be i beate'i. The Waitara Chamber of f'om- ! merce was called in, and as a result of the meeting, it was resolved to promote a Loan Bill, which last session was iii charge of Mr. C. K. Wilson, who got it through. It did not wipe off the old loan, and negotiations were entered into with the Cabinet to effect that purpose. Ultimately, a telegram was received from the Hon. James Allen, stating that the Government had deided to treat the debt as irrecoverable, and had written it oil'. This finality was not reached until after December SI, and consequently the board's balance-sheet up to that period : here the usual tag, but it was •■' only I a scrap of paper," and had no signiI ficance in face of the Minister's telegram. At the March meeting of the hoard, the proposals embodied in the circular sent out to ratepayers were fully gone into, and the board unanimously decided to ask the ratepayers' consent to borrow £13,000, chiefly to be employed in purchasing a dredge, as recommended by the engineers, Messrs. Viekerman and Howarth. The latter was the engineer of the Wanganui Harbor Board, and if Waitara got one-tenth of the benefit that Wanganui had received under this engineer's guidance it would be tremendously advantageous. The dredge recommended was estimated to cost £BSOO. The whole of the marine engineers of New Zealand were satisfied that dredging was the thing. There had been a suggestion that flood gates might do the work, but Mr. Howarth, wdio was sent to the Old World to investigate, saw only remains Of flood gates at Ostend, and dredging everywhere. As regards tho board's powers, the Act gave authority to borrow £50,000, but it was proposed to only go in for £13,000. The board next year would have cash in hand amounting to £OOOO, and so altogether they would have £IO,OOO to get on with tho work if the ratepayers consented to the £13,000 being borrowed. The Act limits the interest and sinking fund to o'/, per cent., and the franchise is one ratepayer one vote. The board members had no axe, to grind, and were putting the proposals forward solely in tho hope or enliancing the welfare and prosperity of the district. Some people might think it was a case of Waitara v. New Plymouth, but the chairman said he could assure them it was not so. The Waitara Board had no vision of a deepsea, port, but merely wanted to get the tender and barges out to the Home boat at any state of the tide. It might be noted that, given a normal condition of the river entrance, it was acknowledged by the shipping peo,ple and. exporters that there was no more efficient place for loading the export cargo than afforded by Waitara in the whole of New Zealand. Their maximum liability was 10s 3d per £IOOO of valuation. He also quoted the engineer's estimate for working expenses, and after pointing out that the scheme was not one of constructive works, but mainly dredging, he concluded by expressing the hope that the proposals would be given general support. Mr. Vaughan showed how trade had increased, making use of the following figures:— In the year 1003-4. eight steamers visited the roadstead, taking away fifi.Oll carcases of frozen meat; 2501 bales of wool; 080 casks tallow; 22 casks sundries. In the season 1911-12, the carcases of frozen meat exported had increased to 171,545; the wool to 8()!)3 bales; tallow to 2227 casks; canned meats started with 005 boxes; sundries were 54. In 1013-14, the carcases of meat went up to 177,850: hales of wool showed a slight decrease fo 7588; casks of tallow went up to "701; canned meats to 1017; sundries lo 305. Last season the frozen carcases made a record with 338,80(1; wool to 1)149 bales; tallow to 3!)8n casks; canned meats to 1315; sundries to 1333.

The number of steamers for the season increased from eight to nineteen. Mr. Ogle said tho settlers would probably say that they were being asked to take a liability, an'd that being so what ooinnicnsurate advantage were they going to have. They would re.c»guise that the freezing works were a large benefit to the farmers, and the said the system of loading was very satisfactory. The roadstead was a splendid one. and the ships lay there at a trifling cost. A farthing per ton light dues was all they paid, as compared with from £l5O to £3OO per day at the wharves. The great trouble in Waitara was that,trade was growing so fast, and there' were not the facilities at present to cope with it. By dredging it was expected to obtain an increased depth on the bar of two to three feet, and that would mean continuous "working while the strainers were in the roadstead. The main thing for the farmer was to get his produce on hoard the direct boats cheaply, and it had been proved that Waitara and Wanganui were the cheapest in the whole of the Dominion for the handling of produce. If the farmer was thus getting the benefit, it was his duty to take his, share in developing the port, so that it could cope with tho trade, which, as Mr. Vaughan had shown, was inreasing year after yea r. Captain Thompson, the harbormaster, •■rave an illustration of the effect of dredging, and the great benefit derlvable from two feet more tidal water coming in. lie said the difference between nine feet tidal rise and twelve feet would be half as much again, and 50 per cent, more water coming in. Mr. Musker said the position had been put very clearly. The scheme proposed seemed a nice workable one, raid the rating liability in the country was not large. The figures given by Mr. Vaughan were rather striking, and the conntrv has yet to be developed. As Mr. Ogle had said, it was a business proposition they were hearing about, and one of the benefits to be expected from improvements in'Waitara was that, if the co-operative freezing works were gone on with a lieaithy rivalry could be well maintained, and the farmer would be the gainer. Mr. Richardson moved—" That this meeting of Uruti settlers give the Waitara Harbor improvement scheme our cordial support." This was seconded bv Mr. W. Old and carried lyMr. Iliiie thanked the meeting for the resolution, and said the effect wouh* be far reaching. He had no doubt about the result of their mission, as he knew if the case was put lucidly the farmers would see it was to their benefit to support the proposed improvement.—Mail.