The Port of Napier

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 58, Issue 72, 27 April 1929, Page 6

The Port of Napier

A FEW QUESTIONS "In Spite Of Any Recom- j mendations " IS IT REASONABLE? (No. 3). It was once said by a cynieal philosophy that the function of spoken j words was to conceal thought. There j is no doubt that this is often true, ' j but if it were always and universally i true huruan society would disiutegrate. | Some men are practised and skilled in j the art of speakiAg words that give 110 reliable clue to their true inward thoughts ; but it is a romarkable fact that even from their lips there frequently escapes an unwonted sentence or phrase that smacks of a refreshing candour and is niore true than politic. A remarkable example of this is to be found in a perusal of the evidence of Mr A. E. Jull given before the recent Royal Connnission ou Napier harbour matters. He spoke of a inajority of eleetors in the harbour distriet being steadfast in their adherence to tlic inner harbour .project "in spite of any recommendations oi engineers to the eontrary." "What a splendid testimonial to successful propaganda and electionecring work! "What a melancholy estiraate of the intelligence of the constitucncy ! On an engineering problem, the distriet has been inereased to back a sclieme, rigbt in the teeth of a huge voluine of engineering opinion to the eontrary. "What is the explanation ? j Rimply that interested men have j tlirown the wright of their personality j on the side of the condemned seheme : j eoniured up the unreasoning allegianee i and mistaken loyalty of party spirit, and used the ordinary stoc-k-in-trade of i the eleetioneering party politieian. "No," say the skilled engineers. i with remarkable nnanimity for over 40 j years. "Yes," says the party boss. | "try a. tieket on it and seore a prize j out of this luoky-bag of promises." The liumiliating thing is that this has heen successful for so long in the j past. It is for the eleetors now to de- • cide that it shall never again sncceed. j The onlv part of Chairman .Tull's evi- • dence that fitted the subsequent expert ! testimony of engineers and navigators and Telated it to the history of the board, was the admission that \ve quote at the liead of this artiele. ELECTORS OF HAWKE'S BAY HARBOUR D1STR1CT— ASK YOURSELVES A FEW. [ QUESTIONS. Are you content any longer to be represented openly and proudly as backers of an engineering project, conceived by a lavnian, and projected in tbe face" of unaniinous engineering . opinion tbat roundly eondemiis it ? j Are you content to follow a man that could, in the capacity of chairman of your board, depose to sucli a slatement as that quotod above? Are you inclined to beliove tliat a man wiio will shut- his ej-es to inconvenient or unwelcome engineering principles uttered by mnny experts, xvill be any more patient of established financial, accounting or commercial principles if tliey seem incompatible with his pet scheme? If on tbe engineering aspect of your harbour you follow a leader "in spite of engineering recommcndations to the eontrary," why not on tlie lcgal aspect give bim your support in a "flutter" in "spite of all legal opinions to tbe eontrary.1''' Your leader floundered badly in the financial-accounting aspects of his evidence. The estahlislied principles of accountancy were as fatal to his "expenditure out of surplus" promises. as were the engineering and navigational principles to his "free harbour — clieap lands" promises. Are you prepared to be eonsistent and give support to his poliey "in spite of all accountancy opinion to the eontrary ?" Tbe inner harbour scheme is definitely and irrevocably outside tbe scheme of practieal politics. In this free country you are, of eourse, as free to send back an inner harbour party on your board as you' are to form and mahitahi a "Hawke's Bav Flat Eartb Society," hui if you do, tbe only effeet nn your harbour project will lie to stalemate Napier harbour for many years. perbaps for ever. Primarily it is a Hawke's Bay matter, but ultimatelv and reallv, this and all New Zealand harbour scbemes are a Dominion matter, and no distriet will be allowed to eontribute a unit to tbe country' s transport facilities, projected aiul eonstrueted in tbe face o'f nnanimous engineering and navigational rondemnation. This distriet is going fo make liistory at tbe forthcoming eleclion. It may afford the Dominion tbe comforting speetaele of a distriet, profiting by tlie collation of information, learning from tbe effects of past mistakcs and turning to sbape an approved and ivise course. It mav, on the otlier liand. afford tbe country such a speetaele of the danger of party spirit in Harbour Board matters dictating a poliey tbat should be sbaped 011 tcebnical and professional advice, tliat steps will be taken to protect tbe harbour system of tbe Dominion from sucli exploitation in the future. "We are about to render a public service oue way or tbe otlier. Artiele No. 4, lieaded "Centralisation and Julius Caesar," will appear in our issue 011 Monday.