COUNTY BOUNDARIES
SETTLERS’ PETITION “INVASION OF OPOTIKI” Under the heading of “Invasions of Opotiki” the Opotiki News reports the effect created on members of the Opotiki County Council by the receipt of a petition of some ratepayers who wish to have their properties included in the Whakatane County. This matter, which came before the May meeting of the Whakatane County Council, was referred by the Opotiki council last week to its clerk to be looked into and considered at the council’s next meeting. The petitioners are settlers in the area west of a line from the mouth of the Nukuhou River to the mouth of Ohiwa Harbour. They are vitally interested in the improvement of road access, as also are the adjoining ratepayers of the Whakatane County. Mr T. W. Burke, who was leader of the deputation which waited on the Whakatane County Council at its May meeting, said he was only 11 miles from. Whakatane but 18 miles from Opotiki. The settlers have petitioned to have the county boundaries altered so as to include them in the Whakatane County.
OPOTIKI COMMENT “HITLER’S SPIRIT STILL LIVES” “On the reading of the petition, which was forwarded to the meeting of the Opotiki County Council on Fiday, councillors expressed some surprise at the action of those responsible for the petition,” states the Opotiki News. For the benefit of its readers the News explained that “after having been invaded from the south recently, when the Waikohu County Council grabbed a large lump of the Opotiki County, Opotiki is now threatened with invasion from the west, the Whakatane County Council casting envious eyes on a large portion of the Opotiki County west of the Ohiwa Harobur.”
Referring to the repeated claims being made on Opotiki territory, the chairman, Mr W. A. Gault, said: “I thought that Hitler was dead, but his spirit still lives.”
The clerk, Mr M. Stone, said that the petition had only been received and there had not been time to look into the validity of it.
It was stated that the area claimed extended from Mr T. Burke’s property right round to the Ohiwa Harbour mouth, and included Ducker’s Island.
The matter was left to the clerk to look into, so that the council could consider the matter further at its next meeting.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BPB19470618.2.24
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Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 42, 18 June 1947, Page 5
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383COUNTY BOUNDARIES Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 42, 18 June 1947, Page 5
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