THE PUBLIC MEETING AT BIRMINGHAM.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 60, 8 September 1893, Page 2

THE PUBLIC MEETING AT BIRMINGHAM.

TO THE EDITOR OF THK STATI. Sir,— Kindly allow me. through the medium of your columns, to draw attention to the meeting held at Birmingham or Wednesday evening. In the first place, the meeting, called for the purpose of discussing several matters of considerable importance to the rising township of Birmingham, was held in the schoolhouse, notwithstanding the fact that there is a Public Hall available. Now, I am told that the managers of the hall charge, for such meetings, for the use of the hall and lamps, the sum of five shillings (if I am wrong perhaps the Hall Committee will correct me) — not a large sum by any means, but evidently tab laree for the citizens of this flourishing town to pay. Now, sir, I, as a taxpayer, as a parent of children attending school, protest most emphatically against the schoolroom being used for any such purpose ; and I think the school committee urt 1 , by allowing it, abusing the trust confided in them. Jn reference to the proceedings, the whole discussion, and the ballot to decide who would be the most suitable persons to recommend for the J.P. appointment, was, to sny the least, farcical in the extreme. I sue a notico convening the meeting (no name attached to it), und on making enquiries find that the meeting was called to nullify, by resolution, some previous resolution re the J.P.-ship, and the meeting was packed (I use the term in its literal sense) by those opposed to the conveners, aud the resolutions arrived at and called " by tin; voice of the people." The practice of electing suitable persons for public offices is an innovation, and the result is ridiculous iv the extreme. The other matters dis* cussed do not call for much comment. Some people consider that it is casting a slight on this important village not to haye a resident postmaster. We haye only a deputy postmaster, and really cannot but feel somewhat small in consequence ; and in reference to the request that iv Registrar be appointed, great stress was laid on the requirements of the place, its importance, and its dignity. We must have a full- blown registrar. ' Birmingham must not be insulted and disparaged, by the powers that be, by the appointment of any more deputies, I am, &c, Indignation. Birmingham, 7th Sept., 1893.