The Port of Napier

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 58, Issue 73, 29 April 1929, Page 8

The Port of Napier

FLOUTING EXPERT OPINION iCentralisation And Julius Caesar £N APPEAL TO REASONABLENESS. (No. 4.) "Hast ihou appealed unto Caesar Unto Caesar shalt ihou go." — Acis 25 : 11. "Centralisation of harbour facilities," said Mr A. E. Jull, "is as dead Hb Julius Caesar." We are learning to turn to JNlr Jull's utterances for profound trutlis ; they are apt to appear very handy oi. occasious. On this occasiou lie has exeelled himself aud we desire to tbauk bim ruost sincerely for the utterance. AVJiat Air Jull, no doubt, intended fco imply, was tliat tbe centralisation pclicy, as a possible warning to and limitation of tbe activities of provincial liarbour boards was for all time and in all circumstances, a thing of the past, and an abandoned and dead project. AVe shall examine that proposition. He tlien proceeds to use "Julius Caesar" as a standard of deadness, and 6ays with an air of finality "as dtad as Julius Caesar." That of course raises the question "Is Caesar dead?" and we ask the electors of this harbour distriet to examine that question There is, of course, the obvious material sense in which the physical body of Julius Caesar is dead and dis integrated. "Imperious Caesar dead and turned to clay Mighi stop a hole io fceep ihe wind away,' wrote our national poet, and that point of view is oue that is quite open to Mr Jull. After a long study of Mr Jull, his activities, and his philosophy of life as disclosed in his utterances, we believe that is the only point of view that he is capable ot on the subject and the rest of this article is not for him. It is for the electors of the Hawke's Bay Harbour Distriet. 1« Caesar dead ? Ask the intellijgent student across the tliresbold of •who.se studies lie tbe words of a master of military taeties, administrative skill. and terse, puugent sentences. Is a man dead whose activities and position threw into human affairs a new relation bptween the governor and the governed that can be expressed only in the phrase "the appeal unto Ca'esar" ? Did provincial government blunder in •Palestine or any other outlying region of the Roman Empire? YVhat was the reniedy Why the appeal to the central government ; the appeal unto Caesar? YVhat is the strongest unifying 'tbread in the whole web of the British Empire to-day? AVhv, the appeal unto Caesar! Let injustice, or parochial error infriuge the liberty of the subject in any far-flung eorner of the Empire and the final remedv is the appeal "unto Caesar. the carrying of tbe question to the central and final autTiority at tbe heart of the Empire. Tt is essentially an appeal to the living and the present. IV HA T HAS THIS TO DO WITH THE NAPIER HARBOUR ? ,.Sa»d1u this. that when nrovincial

jvements come e of men with d electors are adoption of expert opinion to recognised still the appeal tral Government iiinistrators still that liave a e. not be forgotten, ation's transport pride and sborti allowed to add to cpensive error, an •, a monumental :ablished methods permit that is to self-government, all good governiovcs intelligently harbour, approved erience, common nion, the eentralibe ignored ; it has - harbour. But if s its bonds to Air lariot wlieels ; if further with the

■fleged inner harbour, it will be found Kliat Caesar, the central government, Wwill be alert and intelligent to watch ■and guard against any move that will ■place a "dud" harbour on our coasts. ■Suoli a move will without any doubt ■bring into prominence tbe linking up l»f Hawke's Bay expor/ts and imports Pprith AYcllington harbour, and deI'nervedly so. In those circumstances * )he centralisation noliey, as between Hawke's Bay and "Wellington. will be. as Mr Jull said. "as dead as Caesar," meaning, as Air Jull did not mean. "as live as Caesar," as watchful and alert as the central controlling authoritv sliould be. Tliaiik you. sincerely, Afr Jull.