The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER, 8, 1908. THE OUTER HARBOR.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2290, 8 September 1908, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER, 8, 1908. THE OUTER HARBOR.

The Harbor Board undoubtedly adopted a correct attitude at its meeting yesterday, when it decided to appoint a Committee of the whole Board to look into the financial aspect of tho outer harbor schemes. It is true that the financial position was supposed to have been entered info fully last year, when a statement was sent to Parliament accompanying the Bill, hut it is well-known that many of tho figures were incorrect, and the statement as a whole was certainly misleading. The resolution passed yesterday does not show clearly what the order of reference is, hut at is ,to ho hoped the Connnitleo’s investigations will include the fullest inquiry into every phase of the financial question. Before any proposal is put before the ratepayers the Board should have prepared a statement showing the probable revenuo during tho years when the liarbor is being built and subsequent to its construction. This statement should he based not on tlm sanguine hopes of reckless idealists, but on the conservative estimate of practical business men whose only desire is to set forth" the true position in all its phases. There should he little difficulty in arriving at a fairly correct estimate in this connection, for past records can bo taken ns a fairly safe guide for future calculations. In regard to the schemes before the Board at present, we are naturally at the mercy of the gentlemen who have staked their professional reputations on tho feasibility of tho undertaking. When we come to the cost, however, there aro many important points in regard to which tho Board is in a position to check very closely the figures That have been submitted. In this way they should bo able to place some fairly definite data before tlioso sceptics who persist in declaring that the engineering experts have under-esti-mated tho expenses of the schenio by many hundreds of thousands of pounds. The most satisfactory part of Dir. Reynolds’ report ds that he endorses the statements of Mr. Dlarchant and of Messrs Goode, Son and Matthews to the effect that a harbor of the kind that has been made public is thoroughly practicable and within a cost that cannot ho considered unreasonable as such undertakings go. Whether or not Gisborne is yet ready to pay such a sum is another matter that can only be settled properly by the vote of tho ratepayers themselves, 'flic least satisfactory feature of the last report is the fact that it declares Dir. Dlarchant’s ideas in some respects to have beon entirely wrong and impracticable. If Dir. Reynolds’ conclusions are correct, then the ratepayers of this district might easily have pledged themselves to the expenditure of £400,000 on Dir Dlarchant’s scheme and got in return a harbor that would not have met even the immediate requirements of present-day shipping. Following out this line, there will be many who will ask: "What will the next engineer who is asked to report have to say concerning Mr. Reynolds’ conclusions?” Truly, the whole position is ono of doubt and perplexity to tho layman. Wo do not agree with those who look upon tho proposed outer harbor as something of a luxury only needed by those who desire to step ashore from passenger ship to wharf and thus reach their homes in comfort and convenience. We look upon it as a necessary adjunct to the development of a port town which, with a superb district at its batik, should become the most important in the Dominion outside the four centres. Wo believe, too. that with a favorable money market even half a million of money might not be too much for the district to undertake on such a work, but before such a proposal is seriously considered we should have very much more definite data oil the essential points of tho scheme 'than are available at the present time. In the meantime it is to be hoped the Board will recognise ■the urgent necessity of taking some effective steps to improve the present channel, which during the pastfew months seems to have been going from bad to worse. Unless something is done in this direction we shall he ill danger of losing what shipping trade we have instead of continuing its expansion, with tho result that tho long-lookod-for outer harbor will become inoro than ever a dream of the future.