GREYMOUTH HARBOR BOARD.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 March 1919, Page 5

GREYMOUTH HARBOR BOARD.

FINANCES IN PARLOUS CONDITION. GOVERNMENT COMES TO THE RESCUE. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. Owing to the drop in revenue through the decreased quantity of coal passing over its wharves, the finances of the Greymouth Harbor Board are in such a parlous position that members of the board appealed to the Minister of Marine for assistance from the Government. Cabinet considered the question, and Mr. Wilford made a statement as to what the Government was going to .do. The question of the relation of the Railway Department to the board has not yet been gone into, he said, but Cabinet has decided that, in the meantime, and Until legislation can be provided and a policy decided upon, the Government will assist the b«ard tc carry on until the end of AuguA, 1919, on the basis of the estimates of the amount required according to the representations made to mo by the board. This means that the Government puts itself behind the board until the eiiu of August. It is no final decision, for, on the contrary, the policy to be carried out in relation to the whole question has yet to be considered, with a view to the preparation of legislation to provide for a permanent policy of the Government. The board at present owes the Government £300,000, and some £14,200 is in arrears in interest, and through the drop in the coal traffic its revenue to-day, notwithstanding careful management—because we are all satisfied that it has been careful in the past two years—will not pay its interest and ordinary management expenses. Consequently it has to ask the Government to assist it or take over the port. Mr. Wilford indicated that the amount involved in backing the board with the bank was probably about £2500.