Mr. A. W. Parton Speaks To Burgesses

Chronicle (Levin), 20 April 1949, Page 4

Mr. A. W. Parton Speaks To Burgesses

"Just cowardly attacks" and "he is labouring under a delusion of disarranged ideas and is intoxicuted with the exuberance of ms own verbosiiy," were some of the remarks Mr. A. W. Parton directed at an anonymous letter writer tefore a gathering of electors last night. Mr. Parton assured the mee.ing that in all his 30 , years of public life it had not been marred in any way. u Speaking on Playford Park, decried the cOuncil's action m selling part of the land, adding that he would have f elt he had done something worthwhile if, when elected, he s.opped the sale of any more of the park. "I say hands off P^yford Park." The fact that the park was now under the jurisdiction- of t.h (» Orown. through the Domam

Board, was the subject of a leng.hy discourse by the speaker. He pomted out that at present three other reserves were controLed hy i-he council and that these only ^ received about half a minute of the council's time at meetings, "except in exceptional circumstances. Tnere was another board, the Horowhenua Lake Domain Board, which had not met for ten years. Only three Maoris and one European were surviving, he added. - In future years a great deal oi land would to wanted in Levin and yet Ihe council was selling half of Playford Park, proceeded Mr. Parton. He co'mmented on the present awkward position at Rongotai, where the Government-controlled lands held up the enlargemeno of the aerodrome. It had been said by the Mayor, Mr. H. B. Burdekin, that the sections at Playford Park would sell for £230 each, he continued, adding that it was undkely that more than £130 to £140 wou d be seeured. "I call it hoodwinking and not> quite straight," he said. Discussing the drainage and sewerage problems, Mr. Parton stated , emphatieally that what Levin wanted was a compostmg scheme, not a sewerage disposal scheme. Since the negotiadons in 1947, treatment works could have been got under way. The engineer had said in his report that he did not know the absorption powers of any part of -the borough. Levin did not want anything to do with "absorntion powers," but it needed

a c jmpost scheme. Quotmg iurther from the engineer's report, the speaker said that he (the engineer) obviously did not understand the position yet. He would hlame the Mayor and council for not giving the engineer the proper details. Other matters Mr. Parton touched upon were the sanatorium, tree ; pianting in Levin, the reporting of the council's ac'livities and various : other council matters. He recorded his appreciation of ' the work done by Mr. Burdekin in securing ' the sanatorium site for the town.