"THE DEVIL TO PAY."

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 339, 17 August 1889, Page 2

"THE DEVIL TO PAY."

The phrase adopted for our head line is one that is of historical interest in reference to harbor matters, and we are indebted to the former Chairman of the Board, Mr Sievwright, for suggesting it. The phrase is applicable to the present state of affairs, and we should ba wanting in our duty to the public were we to follow the example of a section of the local Press and dismiss the question simply because four members of the Board, and some of them confessedly without convictions on the matter, have decided against Mr Clark's motion. What the position of affairs ? It is simply this, that the original scheme has up to the present failed, and the Engineer is absolutely wrong in his calculations. But that is not the worst part of it. A majority of the members of the Board have n.iw taken upon themselves to send down to Wellington a plan which the Engineer has plainly stated is not of his recommendation. Though he had prepared the rough pl in, and by his assent led to the belief that he himself had recommended it, it was only upon close questioning that he confessed he did nothing of the kind, and that the whole responsibility restel with the Board I - the responsibility of spending three thousand seven hundred pounds on a work that was not contemplated, and whioh, even if allowed to be of sufficient utility, it is doubtful whether the Board can have executed out of loan fund. Evon that is

not all. It was actually proposed that the plans be sent down to Government before they had been seen, in their proper state, by the Board itself, and two of the members who voted against Mr Clark’s motion confessed that they would know nothing about a plan if they saw it. Such admissions from men holding these positions are not very assuring, nor calculated to inspire confidence in those who represent the ratepayers in such matters. It is, too, a puzzle to us to know how the Chairman can reconcile his action at the last meeting of the Harbor Board with the directly opposite stand he took up at the previous meeting, when he seconded Mr Shelton’s motion. The anxiety of Mr Chambers to back up the Engineer in whatever he may do, places him also (that is Mr Chambers) in a peculiar position. His anxiety plainly indicates that he is afraid the appointment of an Engineer would lead to the expression of views opposed to those of that gentleman who is so deeply concerned in keeping thiugs going. If everything is working so smoothly as Mr Chambers would have us believe, why is he so apprehensive as to what would be the opinion of an independent profes sional man ? A short time ago we were accused of trying to injure the district. Now, even Mr Chambers not only aTrms the accuracy of our statements, but actually proposed that three thousand seven hundred pounds be spent, without waiting for the recommendation of the Engineer, in attempting to get over the difficulty, and yet he maintains it is only a trifling matter I It is very difficult attempting to deal with any of the statements of Mr Thomson, the Engineer. He has a way of indicating that he means a o-rtain thing when he is not under the necessity of putting it in writing that it is hard to get him to make a definite statement on any point. But he goes a little too far when he insults the intelligence of

the ratepayers by saying that the scour upon which he relied has not proved a failure ? If it had not done so there would have been nene of the trouble which now occupies our minds. Even the attempt to prove the incompetency of Captain Chrisp and Mr Perham is only so much sand thrown in our faces. What are we to think of a professional man who knows so little of the foundation upon which he is laying his concrete blocks, that’he has to admit when he gets a short distance out that there is a depth of four feet of clay below where he believed the bottom to be rock ? This interesting fact is paraded as an argument in favor of the greater utility of the work We will not reflect upon our readers by pointing out the difference that must be made in the cost of the Work by having to fill up this depth before there is any sea room in which to work a vessel, or any protection feoni the sea; nor shall wa suggest what amount of confidence can be placed in a professional man so ignorant of the conditions tinder which his work has to be carried out. By the same authority we were at first assured that the sandspit was onjy caused by the rocks to the westward being cleaved; now he admits that the beach is affected as far as Grey Street, but no further. The Chairman positively contradicted that statement, and said the beach was affected for over a mile. Which of the«e assertions is to be believed, and who is to be disbelieved ? Clearly both Mr Thomson and the Chairman cannot be ?orreot; then who is trying to mislead ? <et any ratepayer take a walk along the Wsikanae beach and judge for himself, And further let him imagine how much effect a fence run along a portion of the sand bank would have in conserving the property such a distance up the beach. To put the thing into plain language, we cannot in the circumstances place confidence in the Harbor Engineer, and whether or not the work may eventually be mads of use, we cannot lose sight of the fact that Mr Thomson’s original scheme has (allure stamped upon it, and no excuse about the restriction of the work,—no self-laudatory notices, given currency through a newspaper, —no shuffling on the part of an inspired print,—can cloak the true state of things. When Mr Shelton's motion to gat outside opinion was so summarily rejected by those who have such unbounded faith in our Engineer—which faith disappointment apparently serves to strengthen—we warned the Board that they would regret their action. We can only reiterate that warning, and express <?ur opinion that the Harbor Board made another great 'mistake whan they rejected Mr Clark's motion. Whether of not it wag ip the JntereatJbi ratepayers, time will j sbiuv, > 1