HARBOR BOARDS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2614, 23 September 1909, Page 4

HARBOR BOARDS.

THE "WELLINGTON CONFERENCE

[Pint Prkss Association.] WELLINGTON, Sept. 22. At tho Harbors Conference to-day motions were passed affirming that all wharves should be controlled by boards (in some eases at present they are controlled by the Government); that Native lands should be subjected to rating for harbor purposes; that the Government be requested to continue to supply local bodies with valuation rolls: and that the Government be urged to establish a central wireless receiving station. Strong objection was taken at the Harbors Conference to-day to a condition now included by insurance companies in policies effected on Harbor Board properties. The chairman (Mr. Wilford) particularly objected to the clause relating to reinstatement. It meant that if a fire took place on a Harbor Board’s premises the insurance company were not obliged to pay the amount of insurance on the building, and could refuse to go to arbitration, and the companies could hold the pistol of reinstatement at the head of the the policy conditions as applied tc the Harbor Boards. He could sec nothing unfair if the conditions provided for roinstatments after arbitration. He moved: “That the Conference considers that in the insurance of Harbor Boards’ property the right of reinstatement by the insurance under the policy conditions as applied to Harbor Boards should be subject to the right of arbitration.” The motion was seconded by Mr J. E. Watson (Bluff) and carried. On the motion of Mr W. J. Napier (Auckland), seconded by Mr. G. B. Bullock (Otago), it was also resolved that the executive be instructed to consider and report to the next conference on tho expediency of establishing a joint insurance reserve fund, and that if necessary legislation be obtained in an amending Bill to enable such a ■> fund to be established. /