Public Meeting

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 68, 9 December 1886, Page 2

Public Meeting

A meeting of ratepayers of the Borough was held in the Public Hall on Tuesday evening pursuant to advertisement. His Worship th» Mayor, F. Y. Lethbridge, Esq., presided. In opening the proceedings the Chairman remarked on the smalhtess of the attendance. He expected to see a fuller meeting. He then read the notice — as published in the Feilding Stab — anent the propobal of the Borough Council to raise a sum of £ 1 000 for construction of part of a bridge over the Oroua River. He stated the reason the Council went into the matter. A letter had been written by Mr Macarthur supporting the proposal. It had been said they should not go out side of the Borough to do public works, but under the terms of the Loans to Local Bodies Act it made the matter easy for them. He briefly explained how the money would be repaid without entrenching on the ordinary revenue of the Borough. All they had to pay was lid on the annual rental, value of their property, a very small sum indeed. The Manchester Road Board had entered into the thing with spirit,, and they were going in for the road to Bunnythorpe as well as the bridge. The bridge is to cost £3,800, of which the Manchester Road Board will find £2,800, and Borough £1000. He invited questions from any ratepayer, but as the explanations were satisfactory, none were put, and' Mr G. W. Fowleß, a member of the Borough Council, proposed, That this meeting approves of the action of the Borough Council in proposing to raise a loan of £1000 for part erection of a bridge over the Oroua, and pledges itself to assist in carrying the vote at the poll. Mr Macarthur seconded the resolution He remarked how important it was for the business men of Feilding to support the movement. The Palmerston people were doing their best to tap the back country, and the Feilding men should follow' their example. It was thought, wise to bring the matter to the poll this year, owing to the stringency of the Act which will come in force next year. The loan is to be got from the Government. All we will have to payis 5 per cent, for 26 years. This pays the whole debt. The Manchester Road District was not able to do all the work itself The advantage of the bridge and road was all on the side of Feilding, and they should feel it w asincumbent on them to push it on. We should thereby make communications good with the surrounding districts. Everybody who baa a voteshould work for it on the p')Uing day. The proposal of the Borough to find £1,000 wa9 a fair one. The wholecost of the bridge and roads will coin<* to £5,000, of which sum Feilding; will only have to pay interest on £1000. He hoped, for the- sake of the towa and district,, that, ao> ii&rmwiniuded; people would oppose- this- scheme because it did nut iimoediately baaeSfe them. The whole- auauunfc the buurgesses would have* to piy/ would oaLy be £50 a year.-. He hoped; the deeisuua. of the meeting to-night would; cooditea to the prosperity of tfoe> plaett (agrplause). The resolution: was fcbea jwafc and carried unanimously. The Mayor said he* . footed they would all roll up to tke- pott and baringtheir friends. It required! I H? to> carry the vote. The pull will be taken oa Saturday, the 1 8 th i osfc Mr Macarthuu' said the meeting might take into consideration the prosent railway timetable. The whole of the local traffic was sacrificed for the> sake of a few passengers from Weltiugton to Taranaki. He instanced the Dunedin-Christehurch through passenger traffic as. being so remarkably small eveu where the population was much greater than in Wellington. It was absurd that the convenience of the whole of the people of this coast should be sacrificed for the benefit of a few. He then proposed the following resolution : " That this meeting; protests most strongly against the present timetable ou the Foxten-New Plymouth Railway,, which sacrifices the whole of the wayside traffic along; the line in order to enable a few through travellers to. reach Wellington or New Plymouth an hour or soearlier, and that the Chairman forward a copy of this resolution to the Government." In supporting the resolution he said not a single newspaper on the line was in favor of it, with the exception of the N. Z. Times, which only took a Wellington view of the matter. It was confusing and inconvenient trains running on different days of. the weak. It was also an inconvenience to settlers on the side of the line that the trains did not stop at the flag stations. 3e considered the milage run by tho Government engines was now greater than before the Wellington-Manaw&tu Line was opened. Mr S. Goodbehere seconded the resolution. He said he had already experienced loss and inconvenience by the new arrangement. The resolution was carried unanimously. A vote of thanks to the Chairman concluded the business.