E. ..NWAVMA.N, -M.JP.J

9

I.—6b.

they still retain, less 2J per cent, for collection. It must be admitted that Foxton was not as well represented as Wanganui or Patea at that period. Judging by what happened, the representatives of Wanganui and Patea did better service for their districts than the representative of Foxtou. The matter drifted on year after year, and by-and-by Foxton awoke to the fact that it was dropping behind in the race, and, the year before last, a Bill was brought before the House in charge of Mr. Stevens. It was put through, but, unfortunately, the Government cut out the revenue in the shape of wharfages and adequate endowments. The present endowments are entirely inadequate, they only bring in some £400 a year —barely enough to pay salaries. I do not want to go into the whole case. You have beard it all, and very fairly "stated. The position taken up by the Board is a reasonable one. They say they were badly treated in not getting the same revenues as the other ports. Trade is increasing now, and the importance of keeping the river open is becoming greater; they require to get money to keep the river open. The Board comes to the Government and asks to be put in the same position financially as the other ports. Failing that, they ask for a sum of money to enable them to deal with the river, on the ground that it is unjust that one Department of the Government should make a substantial profit out of it (because it is contended that, while the cost of the wharf was only £7,000 or £8,000, the revenue has been over £20,000), while the Board has no funds to spend on necessary works. Failing this, they ask leave to buy the wharf at valuation, and they are willing to submit the price to arbitration. I cannot see that they are not taking up a very fair and reasonable position, and I hope that the Committee will ask that the petition shall receive favourable consideration from the Government, in the hope that some way will be l found to do justice to the Government, the Harbour Board, and the port. There is no doubt that the port can be greatly improved There is nothing to hinder Home-going steamers lying off and loading all sorts of goods there, and Foxton should become a good and important port if the Board only had sufficient revenue to do some improvements. It was unfortunate for Foxton that the Government changed its policy with regard to endowments. Formerly it was the custom for these Boards to get valuable endowments, but now they do not, and the B'oxton Harbour Board suffered. I trust that the Government will remedy the present state of things, and I hope that, to facilitate this, the Committee will report favourably on the petition now before it. Hon. J A. Millar, Minister of Eailways, examined. (No. 4.) Witness: I should like to say a few words. Mr Hennessy and Mr Newman are both present, and they can say whether what I state is correct or not. I will give one or two other instances where the Department has had trouble. They are quite correct in saying that the wharves were originally granted to Patea and Wanganui, and the Harbour Boards in these places have had them ever since. Foxton was in the same position when created, but from some cause or other— I do not know why —the Government got so disgusted that the whole thing was wiped out in 1886. 1 want to point out that the additions that have been made to the Wanganui wharf have been made largely since it came into the hands of the Harbour Board. The wharf in Wanganui to-day and the wharf as originally built are two different things altogether 1 think that the Chairman will bear me out that the wharf there has been built out of the Harbour Board's funds outside of the wharfages. I do not want those who know Wanganui and the wharf there now to think that the present wharf was the. one built by the Government. In Patea the Harbour Board has the wharfages, but that was the original agreement. Foxton never had them, and now, after five-and-twenty years, asks to be put in the same position as these bodies were in previously The Government's trouble is that there are hundreds of rivers where navigation is going on, and where Harbour Boards have been created, each of which is asking the same thing Personally I think it would be a good thing to take the ten million acres of Crown lands, cut them up for endowments, and then we should settle the land question for good. The trouble between the Foxton Harbour Boai'd and the Department is this : They want to buy the wharf at what they consider its value to-day, after allowing depreciation for thirty years. We say we are willing to sell at its value to-day lam prepared to allow it to go to arbitration on what the wharf is producing. They want to take it on the wharf as a structure. If Mr Newman had land at £2 an acre, from which he had been deriving revenue for thirty years, would he now refer it to arbitration as to what he should take for it? lam quite prepared to refer it to arbitration on its earning-capacity That is the only value you can give. That is all you can pay for land —its productive ability Mr Newman It might be earning £30,000 a year, and fall to pieces in six months. Witness That will be a factor in the consideration of the price—whether there will be any cost required to do anything to it to enable it to carry on its work with safety We know MiNewman would not say it is not in a perfect condition. I know the trouble with the Harbour Board. Even if they got the wharf, they cannot make a harbour of it, because they have not got revenue then. From 1886 to 1907 or 1908, when Mr Stevens put this Bill through, that harbour was looked after by the Marine Department, and we expended money from time to time on dredging However, the Foxton people thought they could do better by forming a Harbour Board of their own. They got the authority which they asked for —one or two of the items in the Bill were struck out —but they got the whole of the endowments the Marine Department had to work upon to keep the harbour When this demand was made, the Marine Department's Engineer was asked to visit the place and report on it. He did so, and his report was that nothing-effective could be done to the river without an expenditure of at least £25,000, because the bar is a first consideration. They have got a nasty sand bar, and they will always have trouble unless they go in for a large work at the bar in the first instance. Then they will have to get a dredge to maintain the river, even for vessels drawing 12 ft. of water The largest customer to that wharf for coal is the Railway Department itself The Railway ships the whole of its coal to that wharf

2—l. 6b.