3.
Continuing Mr. Colman said that as trade increased and moved further afield it would be necessary to find capital for building wharves and other facilities. If one railway was not the main factor of the port, it would probably be
As necessary or the Central Government to take control. the scale of operations increased it was sometimes found that the Central Government were not in close enough touch with the needs of the port. Complaints would be heard, possibly to the effect that the technical advisers had too much unrestricted power, and usually the next stage of development was the appointment of an Advisory Board.
Mr. Colman remarked that many Advisory Boards had been set up and any had disappeared usually because they had no responsibility, and because they had no definite responsibilities there was a lack of continuity about their work. As members of these Boards realized that little responsible work was expected or them there was a tendency for them to depute to those Boards junior oficials of loss mature experience of administration, who would raise occasional detailed grievances rather than formulate policy, until the point was reached when it became evident that they were serving no useful purpose and were not called upon to meet.
M. Colman said he had known this to happen and suggested that something similar had happened in Hong Kong.
Mr. Colman said that then the Central Government usually recognized, perhaps reluctantly, the advisability of forming a Body representative of the interests concerned and composed of men of expert knowledge and mature experience, and of delegating to that Body statutory powers and obligations. It was usually in this way that a Port Trust came into existence.
Mr. Colman continued that the main purpose of the Port Trust was to represent the public in general and the shipping interests in particular. By shipping interests he meant the shipowners, their agents, the consignees, the consignors, and such subsidiary interests as ship builders, bankers, insurance companies, licensed measurers and the ferry operators. He wished to stress that the Port Trust would be representative of all these shipping interests.
Mr. Colman mentioned incidentally that he thought that representatives of the consignors and consignees had been omitted from the list of people who were to be invited to make representa- tions to the Committee. He thought they were vitally concerned.
Mr. Colman considered that the main responsibility of a Port Trust was to ensure that adequate facilities were provided to enable legitimate business to be carried on in safety and under This reasonable conditions, interpreted in the broadest sense. might involve the formulation and carrying into effect of long- term policy to provide, for example, dredgers or heavy lift oranes and to run them for the general use of the port. In the second place . Colman stated it was the duty of a Fort Trust to ensure that these facilities were provided at as low a cost as possible and were maintained efficiently; and thirdly it was a duty of the Port Trust to ensure that there was no undue preferential treatment.
The advantages of a Port Trust, Mr. Colman said, were many. It was a corporate body which could not be influenced in any way by anyone. It was composed of men of mature experience and, in some cases, expert knowledge. Its resolutions or representations therefore called for the closest consideration, and Mr. Colman considered this to be a most important point because the situation here today was made a great deal more difficult for the shipping community by the possibility of a Municipal Council coming into existence.
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