THE HUTT ROAD SCANDAL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1054, 17 February 1911, Page 2

THE HUTT ROAD SCANDAL.

. long tho Assessment Ciurt to decido the respectivo liability of the various bodies in respect of the heir. Hutt Road will bo sittrng. here. As no doubt many of your readers, are invars y fi #U i- Passed in tho last' hours of 1 ar , l ! a «ientavy session sdmo. y«ar& ago. the whole cost of this road, including a costly footpath and bicycle track, was thrown upon certain local bodies Without any chance being given them of protesting against this iniquity, or even of supervising or in any way concerning themselves in the construction. Even after this most arbitrary Ait had passed, not a voice was raised in protest bv any local body concerned,' and tho only attempt to avert the consequence of their ineptitude is the pr6seiit feeble protest now being raised, not forsooth against the nieasure its6lf-it is too late for that— but against some merely minor point of c6ristruction work. Now, sir, speaking as a ratepayer in. this. Onslow Botough or sonic 20 years, I can sa.v with truth that t6 many of us her 6 if the assessment Which his Worship the Mayor (of; this , borough),stated would be our share, is niado iitfoh, th 6 ratepayers, it will mean the utter impos?ibility of paying the ' rates. Speaking for myself my rates this year were -Cl.i !0<„ which, for the small • piece 6f ground I have, and the benefits (r) received (no water or sanitation) is littleness than mDiistrous. ; If. as I heard Ms: Worship say, the Hutt Koad means

double rates, so far as I am, concerned, I will make; no attempt to pay them. .£3O. a year rates on aoout 31 acres of land and on the . unimproved value amounts to confiscation. Let tbem confiscate! Now, sir, there is only ono course left ,to us. The attempt to reduco the assessment by', raising points concerning the construction, etc., of fhetroad can only end in failure. The Prime Minister is tho kius of this country, before whom all must bow tho knee. He is shortly going Home to render doubtless invaluable services to the Throne and Empire. There is no time to be lost;. Let us go before him : in -a body and after, the necessary genuflexions, repre&rit our pitiable case, and inform him of the utter impossibility, short of absolute ruin, of meeting h isdemands.—No doubt (especially in view of the anpi'oaching election) he \rill be induced to have mercy on us.fI am, etc., ■' Sx February 10, 1911. '