Timaru Harbour District.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 158, 4 June 1901, Page 3

Timaru Harbour District.

INCLUSION OF WAIMATE BOROUGH.

At the Harbour Board meeting on Friday ihe report of the Standing Committee contained the following paragraph : The committee recommend that the harbour levy for the current year be un amount equal to one farthing in the £ on the gross value of rateable property in the harbour district. The committee have undo inquiry into the circumstances connected with the exclusion of the borough of Waimate from the Timaru harbour district, and find that it was in consequence of representation made by the borough that its trade and interests lay with Oamaru. The committee find that the borough of Waimate, while receiving the benefit of both the Timaru and Oamaru harbours, pays races to neither board; that the borough of Waimate is situated entirely within the Timaru harbour district, which surrounds it and extends for some miles to the south of the borough. The committee therefore recommend that the Board's solicitors be instructed to immediately prepare a local Bill, with the object of having a Commission appointed to consider the question of the inclusion of the Waimate borough in the Timaru harbour district, and to settle the terms of sueh inclusion, the member for Timaru to be asked to take charge of the Bill. Mr Manchester asked if it was pro posed, in the event of Waimate being included, that Waimate people should be asked to cost of the v.orks, on which they had had no say whatever: in other words, would the rates bo made retrospective ? The Chairman said he supposed a Commission would bo appointed to go into the matter, and they would probably settle that point. Continuing, Mr Manchester vigorously opposed the inclusion of the Waimate borough in the Timaru harbour district, and reiterated bis reasons as previously given to the Board. It seemed to him that Wan mate was to be made the “ milch cotv” for the Timaru Harbour Board. One member of the Board had advocated the imposition of differencial rating on goods from Waimate passing through ibis port, and the same member had advocated a reduction in the case of Ashburton. If they Wanted to widen their boundary, why not include Ashburton and Rangitata in the area, as neither of these places was included in any harbour district ? Why should Waimate borough bo singled out for inclusion and other places left alone ? He reminded the Board that Waimate could get goods from Oamaru cheaper than from Timaru. and said that it would be an almost unprecedented breach of constitutional rights to attempt to force Waimate’s hands in the direction proposed. Waimate people had a very firralv established conviction, whether right or wrong, that the Timaru Harbour Board’s schemes would, in the end, prove a gigantic failure. They had had no say in the raising of the loans, all of which they disapproved, and now to ask them to assist to bear the burden of these was unjust, and the AVaimate people would fight very hard against the proposal; he could assure them of that. He hoped that this Board would not seek to make itself so unfair and unjust as to include AVaimate. The Timaru Harbour Board had incurred heavy liabilities ; let them, like men, pay them, and not go whining about trying to get other people to pay their debts.

Mr Macintosh said that with regard to Mr Manchester’s remarks in respect of Rangitata and Ashburton, he would point out that Waimate is not in the same position, with regard to Timaru, as those districts are at all. Waimate was in this district and surrounded by an area rated by this Board, and he failed to see why it should le excluded. This Board did not seek to put upon their shoulders the onus of paying for what was practically lost, but they did ask them to pay for the benefits of which they derived so large a share. They had escaped harbour rates in the past, and it was high time that they bore their fair share of the burden. So far as concessions made to Ashburton were concerned, that was simply a matter of business, and any inducements that could be offered to outside districts to send their produce through Timaru should be offered. He would like to see the proposal to include Waimate borough carried unanimously. Mr Thew said that a Commission would be appointed to settle the terms under which Waimate would be included, and they would be sure to do what was jnst and fair in the interests of both parties. Waimate should certainly be included. The Chairman said that the Commission would be sure to do what was right and fair as between man and man. Mr Manchester then asked if, in the event of Waimate being included, tne Board would recommend that the inclusion should not incur retrospective liability in regard to the repayment of leans in the borrowing of which Waimate had had no say, and was told that a question of that kind would require to be left to the Commission to settle. On a vote being taken, the Standing Committee’s proposal was carried, Mr Manchester alone objecting.-—Post.

The Wife : “Oh, you needn’t sneer!* I mean every word I say.” “I am not sneering, my dear. I’m just thinking what a lot you must mean.*