LOCAL TWADDLE.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 546, 7 October 1881, Page 3

LOCAL TWADDLE.

To the Editor.

Sir, —Wo are over-governed by one rating body, if the report in your issue of the 6th inst. is correct, the Road Board at one sitting having pledged themselves to the full amount of the anticipated Government subsidy, without oven making provision for outstanding liabilities, viz., Rhodes's Flat, and putting other roads through the Public Works Act, clerical and .engineering expenses, and las-t, but not least, the existing contracts for maintenance of main roads. I wish to draw these gentlemen's attention to the fact that the local rates will rot fill up the gap, and that it would be better for them to have a balance sheet before them at every meeting, which would s-how them their financial position, and then its men of business they would expend accordingly. In one part of your report the members must have spoken unadvisedly about J. Wright's contract in saung that totara timber would cost £100. I had no idea there were any works on hand that would take from 14,000 to 15,000 feet, which quantity represents the amount quoted. I blame them much that without due consideration they allow worthless manukau to be used, so that the bridges will have to lie rebuilt in four or five years. I should advise those gentlemen before certifying to any amount to ascertain quantities from their officer.

Respecting the abolition of the County Council, is it the change of the moon, or is Mr Shadbolt joking ? At any rate it is a conundrum to me. and I shall give it up, and I fancy it will puzzle wiser heads than mine to solve it. In one part of your issue there is an address to the ratepayers of the Berard Riding from Mr B. S., asking them for their support, and further, if elected, he will do his duty in a trustworthy manner; but in the Road Board report this gentleman moves a resolution to call a meeting of all the members of Road Boards in the county to devise the best means to burk or smother the poor little infant County Council, forgetting the many strugg.es for existence the Road Board had in its infancy, principally through impecuniosity, and, had it not been for his fostering care, might have been a thing of the past. But the worst feature of the resolution is that it entirely ignores the ratepayers, and proposes that these bodies (who are merely trustees to «xpend the public moneys) shall meet for the purpose of coercing public opinion, which they have no right to do.—Yours, etc., TWADDLER.