PORT CHALMERS MUNICIPAL MATTERS.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2404, 15 December 1870, Page 2

PORT CHALMERS MUNICIPAL MATTERS.

To the Editor of the Evening Star. Sir—Tho so-called official reply (to what?) is so extremely hazy, that I venture to ask the Mayor of Port Chalmers if it would not he more satisfactory to the ratepayers if he had been as lucid iu his statement as he was frivolous in his correspondence. It is, I believe, the usual habit of the (Jalius Domedicur to proclaim to all and sundry with a loud cackling the fact that an egg has been produced ; such being the case, I will excuse his Worship expressing satisfaction and pride at the joint production of himself and Town Clerk (which is figuratively an egg from a mare’s nest). But in order that those who do not belong to the Town Council might know something reliable about the matter, I would ask the ('onncil to state what is the point in dispute, and give facts and figures, also the reasons. Do they want a subsidy for the rates they should have collected in IBG7, or do they want a subsidy for 1870, in addition to a sum of Ll3O, that has been received, although it does not appear in the official reply, and I would respectfully inform his Worship that the said reply would be more official if it had been signed by the auditors. Now Sir, I have a few questions to ask his Worship, viz., if there is axy subsidy due to the Port from the Government why did you move in the Provincial Council than an address he presented to his Honor the Superintendent, requesting him to place on the estimates a sum of money sufficient to make up the above LI3O to tbe subsidy, the Port would be entitled to at least ten shillings in tbe pound on the rates collected for 1870 ? Could you not have gone to the Provincial Treasurer and have shown him a similar document to tho one you published yesterday, and have exerted that power of persuasion which you so largely possess ? and no doubt he would hand you over the money without deducting the LI3O already paid you would thereby enhance your claims to the support of the electors of Port Chalmers on any future occasion you might seek their suffrages. I have no wish to impute motives, but when I find such a wilful distorting of facts, 1 like to know the reason why, and perhaps it is found in H. M'Dermid’s intention to contest the seat in the Provincial Council for Port Chalmers, and he wants a rallying cry. I am, &c., Ashlar. Port Chalmers, Dec. 15th, 1870.