Correspondence

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 113, 24 April 1888, Page 2

Correspondence

MANCHESTER ROAD BOARD.

TO THK EDITOR OF THE ST. A II. Sir,— l did not get my paper in time to answer Mr Jones' letter on Saturday, but I will just ask him a question or two, if you will give me space. He says :, " Had the informality not occurred in connection with the late poll, Messrs Bull, Bailey, and Joues would have voted for the 2£d rate, and used all their influence to get the other ratepayers to do so too." Well, if everything was fair and 3'juare, why wer'nt the two polls taken together? If this could'nt he done, how was it Messrs Bull, Bailey, and Jones never troubled a bit about getting the other poll started once they had got ours carried ? Remember, our» was carried with, as far as •ihey thought, all the money applicable to the bridge. It was carried about the end of January, I think, and the Government did not find out the informality till the beginning of March. If they meant the 2£d rate, why was nothing done for these four or five weeks. Even if the Manawatu JEtoad Board had got ad its money for the year, the 2£d poll would hold good for a future year, and would have been a pledge of good faith. And, what is to prevent the fth of a penny poll being tried again, and the 2£d at the same time, if the clique was honest in its intentions. All the new scheme is simply to relieve these 18 ratepayers from another district whoso rates, general or special, we have never got any benefit from. Though most of us have our roads we are not go selfish as not to vote to help the ratepayers of our own district whose rates may have helped us in times past. We proved this by our last rote. We do object, though, to these 18 gentlemen coming on our already overburdened shoulders. As for their liabilities, once the petition is signed and tlie 18 tacked on to us, we shall have to take them over whatever they are. As for Mr Bull not being responsible any more than the other members, that is all rot. He is our Warden, and not the other members, and the whole thing was really in his hands, *as everybody knows. And Mr Jones says' the Manawatu Board will make some allowance for the rates paid to it during the last ten years. Confiding Mr Jones ! Think of that ! The Manawatu Board, which we all know is about dead broke, will fork out rates paid, and spent somewhere else, during the last ten years ! There was a celebrated old lady who used to say to her chickens, " Dilly, dilly r come and be killed." Well, if we sign the petition we'll be quite a* green, and deserve the same fate; as those chickens. Since I wrote you my other letter I have heard it whispered up here that this clique will, if they get their way, have their property made into an additional ward of the Manchester District. Then there would be a seat for the two busy Bs down there, or perhaps Mr Jones would be Warden for this No. 7 ward. A nice chance we in Upper Taonui would have then. Mr Jones says : "lam quite oblivious of the fact that it is proposed to complete all the unfiuiahed roads in the ward, most of which are in my district." Are they '? Well, Mr Jones, tell me out of the .£4OOO we voted for how much was to be spent north of the Feilding road, and how much south of it ? and then we'll see whether most of the roads or the money to be spent were in Upper or Lower Taonui. To the best of my recollection we had two roads — forlong's and Smith's road, with £500 to. be spent on them. As to appending my name and address (as Mr Jonea calls it), his threat that "he and his friends know the name of almost every man in opposition to their scheme" tells me what mercy 1 might expect from them. I have my living to make, but if any of my facts are wrong let them show it. That's what the public cares about ; not who writes, but whether what is written is true. — I am, &c, Upper Taonui. [We have had to excise some, of our correspondent's remarks, which are too personal for our columns. While we are willing to give every opportunity to correspondents to express their opinions on either side of a public question, they must do so in temperate language. — Ed. F.S.] *