I.—6b.

10

[HON 3 A. MILL AS.

Whenever the bar is fit to be worked, our coal goes there, and is distributed throughout the different parts of the district, so that that is Government money as well. Let me point out what the Railway Department had to pay when they took over the wharves. There is constant friction wherever there is joint control in working harbours. This was; discovered in Nelson, and arrangements were made to take over the whole of the wharves there and work them as part of the railway They had small private wharves there, which had been built, and to which the shipping went. They got revenue from that, and the Government had to guarantee to make up any deficiency up to £1,500 per annum. You will see that that is 5 per cent, on .£30,000. We had to pay the Nelson Harbour Board to take over the wharves then existing Mr Hennessy was perfectly honest. He said that if the positions were reversed they would get the best value they could. The trouble is that the Railway Department has got wharves all over New Zealand. There is one at Port Chalmers, which cost £20,000, and upon which, ten years ago, £10,000 was expended in lengthening it. If you are going to endow the Harbour Boards with the wharves or the wharfage, can you in justice do it to one and refuse it to others who make the same demand? Since it was done before, according to Mr Hennessy's own statement, a reversal of policy has taken place. This, [ think, partly tecause Wanganui sold pretty well the whole of the endowment it received, and since then Hokitika had to get power to sell its endowment to pay a debt of £30,000. The Department is not working against the Harbour Board. A rumour got abroad that we were going to take away our coal. We never had the slightest intention of doing it, and we are not working in antagonism to the Harbour Board. We should be only too pleased to see them improve the harbour but say that we should not be asked to find the money to improve it. We know that it takes a. certain amount of trade now from us, but we have dealt better with it than did the old Manawatu Railway Company They had a special low rate to take the trade away; but when the Government look over the line they put up the rate to "classified rate," and we know, as Mr Hennessy has said, that trade has improved there. So far from actiug in a hostile manner we have endeavoured to put trade in their road, so long as they are not a menace to the Railway revenue. If they want to buy the wharf, and arbitration was fixed, it should be on the earning-capacity If I have a property for thirty years that has been returning me a fair profit, it would be sold on its earning-capacity to-day, and I only ask that the Government Department should be dealt with in the same way. The Railway Department is the biggest business in the country, and if we had intended to cut down the Board's revenue we should have kept to the Manawatu Company's rates. We are trying to get rid of these differential rates, but you will find them in every part of the world where'there is water competition, to enable competition to be carried on. It was done m Invercargill twenty-five years ago, between Dunedin and Oamaru twenty years ago, and between Timaru and Christchurch,'to enable the Department to maintain some part of the trade, seeing that, i/t had gone to the expense of constructing the line, and had to find interest on the money It did not matter much what the Committee recommended. This is a portion of public property which can only be disposed of with the sanction of the Crown. I was quite willing, I told Mr Newman, to put a vote on the Marine estimates. 1 hope to be able to put on a small sum to give them some assistance to get over the particular trouble with the bar If the Foxton people want to make a port, there is only one way of doing it—get a rating district. As soon as they do that, and show a desire to put their hands in their own pockets, they can come to the Government and ask tor assistance in the shape of an endowment or anything else, as long as I see the people of the district prepared to assist themselves, without asking the consolidated revenue to pay the whole lot. Approximate Cost of Paper.—Preparation, not given; printing (1,500 copies), J56 15s.

By Authority : John Mackay, Government Printer, Wellington.—l9lo. Price 6d.]