THE HARBOR BOARD ENDOWMENT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2067, 13 August 1885, Page 2

THE HARBOR BOARD ENDOWMENT.

To the Editor, Sik.—ln your issue of yesterday I notice a letter from Mr George Beetham, nnd referring chiefly to a resolution carried at a meeting held, here on the 4th inst., protesting against an endowment being granted to the Wellington Harbour Board in the Mangatainoke Block, Forty Mile Bush. As the seconder of that resolution, I wish to point out that up to the present, endowments have been made and given in this provincial district to the College Governors', Education Boards and Municipal and other corporate bodies, indiscrirainatey, without any conditions of any nature or kind, so far as the settlement of their particular endowments are •oncerned; consequently they have been barriers to settlement, and in some cases of no real value to the bodies possessing them, Firstly we have a very large endowment in the Alfredton district owned jointly, I believe, by the Wellington Education Board and the College Governors, containing in all about 12,000 acres. Had this land been sold in 1874-6 when it to given to these bodies, at the rate of 5s per acre, the then value of the land, they would have rceeived by this time, what with interest and compound interest, an amount equal to the present value of the land, and it would in all probability have been settled and in a producing state by this time, but up to the present this endowment has been a drag the owners, and,.there are other endowments ■ the, same, position. -And • again,-, and ; ,1 allude i this 4me to in endpwment known the .Wellington city corporation endowment, Matigahao/ Hers is an endowment which is, to all ; intent» and purposes,, a barrier to settlement. This particular block of land is being. bad: from settlement for speculative piirpoMs, to the'

and the corporation of thg city gf Welljngton intencl really. to increase kieana by an unearned iric'remeiit' inasmuch! as the labors of struggling settlers jjkte enhanced the value of fch sir land 9 twpsi, and in some cases fourfold. These., were some of my reasons for the granting of blocks of land 'for endOwtffehts. But, sir, if Mr Beethaml can put these endowments under the provision?, pf the Land Act, and subject to the" control of the Waste Lands Board, then not a person in the provincial district can'or should object to granting any amount .of endowments to any of the corporate bodies within that district. In short, the endowments would be'simply money endowments, to be derived from the sale or lease of special blocks of land'set apart for that purpose, being "the / property, of the colony} as a whole. * lam sUre, sir, there was rjot a person at the meeting who would j object to'the Wellington Harbor Board receiving 75 per cent.of the proceeds the sale of any portion of theMangatainolie Block, always providing that it does not in any way interfere with the settlement' of'the oountry, -as these ■ endowments' which I have before mentioned, certainly, do. v i am > i&c., 7 ' 1 JOBVIIE.

V To the Editor, Sie,—ls| not this pother about-the Wellington Harbor Endowment ratlHof a fraudulent nature? Are not Mfflsa Hogg, McCardle & Co. making a cheap - bid for popularity and prospective votes by this meanß ? I think so, and so will everyone, else who considers the question for a moment. Why, Wellington Harbor is our Harbor, tjCfWairarapa Harbor; all the wool, jbytter,;'&c., &c., we send away, is shipped "there, and all the. goods ,we import are discharged A there, nor is there any other harbor wt jfjt can use. Every other harbor in the.i f country is. endowed, and why should our | harbor be left out ? An endowment to' tlio harbor meanß a lowering of harbo? dues. AH our goods, either received or sent away, have now to pay two shillings per ton for wharf dues, but if there was a good endowment, this would, no doubt, be reduced, very materially, and why should we pay two shillings a ton to ! gratify a fad of Mr.McCardle? Which would a'working man of Masterton profer, think you, to have two shillings per ton clapped on to all the goods hp has to buy, or have this two shillings come out of a slice of country by way'of rent. No! No! Mr McCardle, you have got the wrong sow by the ear this time, ao let us • hear no more about the Harbored Endowment, unless it is to petit®!he Government to grant it. I am Ac:, Cookies.