BOROUGH AFFAIRS.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 198, 20 February 1895, Page 2

BOROUGH AFFAIRS.

TO THE KDIT'>II OF THE STAR. Sir,— ln your leader of Saturday on this subiect you appear to think the City Fathers require some -waking up. I'm with you there, sir, and trust before this matter is allowed to drop the burghers of Feilding will see that those venerable and lethargic members of the Council receive their deserts. The matter stands thus— We want the Municipal buildings badly, very badly. On the original plan of the township the Square was preserved intact with a site reserved in the centre for some public building. Owing to laxity m management the Square was permitted to be intersected by Kimbolton road and Manchester street, thereby causing in the midst of the town an arid waste, an untidy, unkempt, unsightly, and altogether hideous patch of ground, which, unfortunately, imparts that character more or less to the appearance of tte surrounding portion of the township. General Feilding visits us, he says : — You want your Municipal buildings badlj 7 . Very well, the township is completely spoiled by the Square as it now stands. Put your buildings up on the site originally intended for such a purpose in the centre of the Square, and the Corporation will lend you the money at six per cent. And, furthermore, the Corporation will entirely at its own cost close up the streets now running through the Square, perfect the streets and footpaths surrounding it, enclose it wfth an ornamental chain fence, lay it down in suitable grasses, plant it with ornamental shrubs and trees, and furnish it with ornamental iron seats." And, sir. what do the enlightened members of our Council say to this most generous and public spirited proposal ? They decline it, actually decline it. Oh, ye gods! They say leave the Square as it is, and propose to erect the Municipal buildings on an out-of-the-way site opposite the Carbine Stables, near the railway line. The Square, as it is at present, is a disgrace to the Borough, and if the offer made by General Feilding is not taken advantage of it will be the same twenty years hence. I think, sir, that a question of such vital importance to the well-being of tho town should not be allowed to be shelved owing to the want of pluck and go on the part of some of the members of the Borough Council, and I would suggest, sir, that a public meeting be called by the Mayor in order that the subject may be thoroughly ventilated and discussed. I am, etc., Peo Bono Publico.