MR JACOB IN REPLY TO MR. MACARTHUR.

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 55, 25 October 1890, Page 2

MR JACOB IN REPLY TO MR. MACARTHUR.

TO THE J.DITOR «.'F THE STAR. Sib, — At Mr Macarthur's invitation, I reply briefly to his letter ; to omit to do so might appear a want of courtesy on my part. Mr Macarthur told the House that he would apply the subsidies strictly to purposes of settlement, and to make his meaning clearer, he added " And the Government should give them to the local bodies with the stipulation that they should be expended on certain roads to open up waste lands of the Crown." If this means that a large portion of the subsidies is to be spent on maintaining bridges, the majority of whioh.are about as necessary to settlement and opening of Crown lands as the Te Aro railway, then " English as she is spoke" by Mr Macarthur is not the English I know. The railways have now superseded most of our bridges as far as settlement and opening Crown lands are ooncen.el, although they still remain a benefit to the community. Mr Macarthur himself mentioned the Gorge bridge as an example of what I state. He does not show, and I fail to see how, a scramble for the subsidies is to be avoided under his plan. His insurance scheme now appears to be that those local bodies who build their bridges in a prudent and substantial manner, and those who possess few bridges are to be made to pay for the negligence of other bodies who build their bridges so badly that they requ're constant renewal. — I am, &c. f Wm. F. Jacob.