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(62) "Control" is the first point and, of course, develop- ment, physical and otherwise, is bound up with it. The vital
point is who should control or administer the Port?
(63)
It seems to me that there are three courses open, and
three only, they being:-
(a)
(b)
To allow matters to remain as they now are;
To adopt some improved method of Government
control;
(c)
To establish control by some form of Port
Authority or Trust.
(64) Course (a) "To allow matters to remain as they now are"
obviously requires to be cleared up first of all, because if the present state of affairs should be proved to be perfectly
satisfactory then (b) and (c) need not arise.
(65) As things are, the Government of the Colony may be said to control or administer the Harbour, as they own all the land and have granted the leases under which the piers for
shipping have been constructed, and they have laid down mooring
buoys for vessels, as well as providing navigation lights. Apart
from this there has been very little control or administration,
it having been left to private enterprise to do all else that
was necessary, and it must be admitted that private enterprise
has succeeded to a remarkable degree in meeting the needs of the
situation.
(66) So far as the Government is concerned, the Harbour is
not treated as an entity in itself. As already mentioned it
comes within the purview of various officials in so far as their
respective general duties impinge upon it. The Director of
Public Works, for example, deals with the Harbour among the public
works of the Colony, the Land Department issues the pier leases as
part of their duty to deal with other leases, while even the
Harbour Master is concerned with duties other than those relating
strictly to the ordinary duties of such an official.
(67) The accounts of the Harbour are not kept separately, so