THE HARBOR BOARD BILL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2108, 30 September 1885, Page 2

THE HARBOR BOARD BILL.

On the motjon for the secondd reading of the Bill as reported in Hansard, Mr Beetham considered that the present constitution of the Harbour Board was quite sufficient and quite satisfactory, and that it provided for the representation of all interests concerned. The proposal pf the honorable member was to increase the general representation yejy considerably, without giving any corresponding increase tq tljo country interests, and therefore it was his intention to oppose it. As the Honorable member for Thorndon had said, the' Bill would, to s, great extent, prevent those who provided the sinews of war from having a voice in the management of the jjarbfliir, That alone appeared to him to be sufficient to condemn the Bill, He thought t|je prompter of this Bill weuld be acting wore justly if he contented himself with merely bringing forward the meagre; J)ut jt would not be fair to aak the Hope to paqs % second reading this session, thereby affirming a principle which, to his (Mr Beetham's) mind, was a vioious one, The Bill might be oiroulated

during the recess, and introduced at' an early period of next session, when it could be fairly considered. . Mr Buchanan should oppose the second reading of the Bill. It was well known that for some time there had been a considerable amount of bickering in the city with regard to the Harbor Board. Charges were made against the City Council before the constitution of the Harbour Board that the interests of the Harbour and of. the district were being sacrificed for the maintenance of streets—in other words, that the wharf dues were wrongfully diverted from their legitimate purposes and applied to street improvement. There Had also been a great amount of bickering ever since the constitution of the Harbour Board; but he need not take up time by giving expression to his opinion regarding it; he merely desired to mention that the feeling had existed a long time. : If the representation of the city was to-be increased on the Board ho would certainly lay claim to a proportionate representation for the country districts'. It was simply ridiculous to imagine that an important country district like the Wairarapa should have only one member—-one-twelfth of the representation of the Board. Another important consideration was that it was not conducive to the proper conduct of business that an important Bill like this should be brought in at such & late period of the session. On that ground alone he should be disposed to vote, against the second readine of the Bill. B