TAONUI-BUNNYTHORPE ROAD CONTROVERSY.

Feilding Star, Volume X, Issue 51, 6 October 1888, Page 2

TAONUI-BUNNYTHORPE ROAD CONTROVERSY.

TO THE KIHTOR OF THE STAR. Sir, — Mr Bailey is specially amusing in his last letter. Because I had a majority in the Board when Chairman, he thinks it was my duty to let contracts for road construction, when according to his own showing 1 in the same letter, the Board had not the money to pay the contractor. Then again, Mr Bailey calmly states that the whole duty of the Treasurer of the Board is merely to sign cheques, and not to look after the Board's finances. Treasurers like Mr Bailey's ideal would very soon land their Board in the hands of a Receiver. To compare great things with small, imagine the Colonial Treasurer being told not to meddle with the finances of the country, but to leaye the management of them to one of his colleagues. Mr Bailey thinks he has made a very telling point when he quotes a letter from the Manager of the Bank r calling on the Board not to start any fresh works, as the overdraft had' reached its limits. Poor Mr Bailey I He will be surprised to learn r that the letter referred to was written at my urgent request,, is order tbat the hands of the Board might be strengthened in resisting the constant pressure for expenditure, a pressure which* would, if it bad not been cheeked, have put us in the same position as the Manawatu Board is now in. Mr Bailey says he will not notice my replies on account of what he calls personal abuse. Is that the real reason ? Or is it because as I told him in my last, the longer he goes on the worse mess he makes of his case ? I believe I did use the term "muddle-headedness, n in connection with Mr Bailey. The term was so* applicable, that I hope Mr Bailey will forgive me, when he conoiders the magnitude of the temptation. I an* willing to offer him tea thousand apologies, rather than be the cause of his ceasing to write letters so full of unconsciousdel humour, letters grumbling at his own petition being granted, | letters wherein the eve of an election is held to be a date six months after polling- day, where a Chan-mante duty is to use his influence on the Board to* let contracts without funds to pay for them, and a Treasurer's duty is to* sign cheques without knowing whether they will be honored. If Mr Bailey has had enough knock down blows, he is prudent in not standing up for another round j but on other grounds, it is a pity he should cease this controversy, just as he i» beginning to be amusing. — I am, &c.» IX H. Maoabthttb.