The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY. MARCH 23, 1910. THE NAPIER HARBOR.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2767, 23 March 1910, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY. MARCH 23, 1910. THE NAPIER HARBOR.

To-day will see the conclusion of the very vigorous campaign waged in Hawke’s Bay in favor of a proposal to borrow £300,000 to continue the work at the Breakwater. The proposition is in accordance with .the joint .report of three eh-’ gineera, Messrs. Maxwell, Williams, and

Mason, and has the backing of a majority of the Harbor Board, including the chairman, Mr. J. Vigor-Brown, and both the local newspapers. Under ordinary circumstances those favoring the Breakwater scheme would have little anxiety as to the result of the poll, but the determined opposition and extraordinary energy 0 f one man, Mr. W. Nelson, have brought about a stern fight. There arc always divided opinions on questions of harbor construction, and Mr. Nelson clings tenaciously to the belief that the Inner Harbor at Port Ahuriri is the proper place to invest the money of the Hawke’s Bay ratepayers. He has outlined a system for reclaiming hundreds of acres of land and providing a harbor 400 acres in extent at the port, with a minimum depth of 33 feet of water. The work would he accomplished by two immense dredges. Mr. Nelson’s plans were considered by the three engineers just mentioned, and were discarded in favor of the Breakwater extension. However, Mr. Nelson is still unsatisfied, and he has been flooding the papers with letters relative to his scheme, and has distributed thousands of pamphlets amongst the ratepayers. There is an old saying that “money talks,” and in this connection Mr. Nelson speaks convincingly. He says:—

Subject to a contractor being provided to dredge the Inner Harbor, and arrangements being made to place the -dredge employed on . that work at my disposal, I will undertake to dredge a satisfactory channel and keep it open for 10 years, £20,000 being paid me for dredging the channel and £10 ; 00p a year for keeping it open. This totals up to. £20,000 less than the engineers say it will cost only to make a satisfactory channel, while the cost of keeping it open is covered for ten years. In support of my unbounded belief in the stability of this channel, I am prepared to deposit £SOOO, to be forfeited if I fail, and in any case this deposit not to be returned to me till the ten years’ contract has expired.

. Amongst many objections that have .been raised to Mr. Nelson’s scheme is that owing to the rocky nature of the material to be dealt with the artificial harbor could not be “dug out” for anything like the sum he mentions. On this point Mr." Nelson asked that the poll be deferred Torja. month whilst t’/< ground is tested by borings. ' ' There Is no doubt that Mr. Nelson bas'mridea very powerful appeal to the Hawke’s Bay public,.,yet at,the same time i.is protest seems likely to he futile. The advocates for Breakwater extension. are able to point to an increasing satisfaction with the policy they have adopted. After many' years of anxious labor and enormously heavy expense, during which they had to/face not only the gibes of their opponents, but also their own private misgivings, they appear to have at last turned the corner. Only the other day a good-sized Home liner discharged alongside the wharf, and the reports of the engineers most recently consulted are to the effect that they are proceeding on right lines. In other words, their policy is rapidly being justified by results, whilst the Inner Harbor scheme propounded by Mr. Nelson, however

meritorious it might prove, must be looked upon as purely speculative. We still, therefore, expect to find our neighbors in Hawke’s Bay sanctioning the £300,000 loan and embarking on a vigorous policy of extending the present breakwater and building additional wharves.