BOROUGH AFFAIRS.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 205, 28 February 1895, Page 2

BOROUGH AFFAIRS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR. Sir, — In your issue of the 26th there is a letter signed "E. Giesen, Manager C.L. and L.C.," urging the Borough Council to deviate a road, which is now two chains wide, through Manchester Square and a portion of what will be the handsomest and most commodious road in the province. Mr Giesen, as local representative of a Loan Company, has, of course, to enhance to a higher value their adjacent sections in any way he can, but when he says that most of the ratepayers are in favor of this diversion I believe him to be wrong. Ask the ratepayers the plain question whether they prefer to have the use of a wide straight road, or would like to see the centre built upon, and themselves driven round four narrow corners in conse* quence, and you ■will soon get an answer with a little Common Sense* Feilding, February 27th, 1895.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR. Sir, — Referring to Mr Giesen's letters on the above subject I beg to submit the following reasons why the Post Office, and not the Municipal Buildings, should be placed in the Square : — 1. Mr Giesen admits that it was the original intention that the Post Office should occupy this position, and no reasonable objection can be made to this intention being carried out. 2. The Corporation have already promised to lend the money for Municipal Buildings to be erected on a site granted by them opposite the Court House — a site convenient for the purpose and which generous offer the Borough Council should lose no time in availing themselves of. 3. Manchester Square, being the centre of the town, is the most suitable position for an institution like the Post and Telegraph Office, which is used by nearly every member of the community, while the Municipal Build* ings will be used only by comparatively few. 4. The Government are more likely to grant this much needed boon of a central Post Office if they are only put to the cost of a building than if they have to pay a high price to the Corporation or some other land holder, for a site which will be, after all, less central. As to the objections to a building in the Square, it is so ample in its dimensions that the traffic through it would not be j seriously interfered with. The present j road would simply have to be altered so as to surround the structure, which I could easily be made an ornament to the town if erected, say, in the hexagonal shape, and something after the style of a Swiss chalet. The present time (when we have a Liberal member) is very suitable for insisting that the Government shall proceed with this Post Office, which, as a matter of justice, Feilding is entitled to considering its commercial importance, and the large sum contributecl by this district to the revenue of the country. In conclusion, I submit that the Borough Council will in this way just as effectually lead to the improvement of the Square as by adopting Mr Giesen's suggestion, and will secure to the community a double boon— the central Post Office erected by the Government, and the Municipal Buildings erected on a free site granted by the Corporation. I am, &c. Ratepayer Feilding, 26th February, 1895.