WAIROA.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 13, Issue 690, 10 June 1869, Page 2

WAIROA.

PUBLIC MEETING.—COL. WHITMORE MEEfS HIS LATE CONSTITUENTS. [communicated] Colonel Whitmore, being at Wairoa, met his late constituents at Mr Taylor's hotel, at Clyde, on the 2nd inst. The meeting was very fully attended, and Mr ii. Carter occupied the chair. Colonel WHITMORE, having been called upon by the Chairman, explained what had been done during the last two sessions of the Provincial Council, and the course lie, as representative of the Wairoa dis tr-ict, had pursued. He remarked that the little that had been accorded at the first session was not fulfilled, and that at the second he had been unable to obtain even the amounts previously voted. It wasthen well known that the Provincial revenue had practically ceased, and the las? chance for districts in want of aid to get ib from the loar<. .Nevertheless, i was impossible to obtain am thing for the ' Wairoa district, the majority of memberbeing interested in the southern part of the Province. The member for Porangahnu succeeded not only in getting a con siderahle part of the loan spent between his station and Napier, but also in getting '< a coach subsidised to run upon the road ; to Porangahau. v ' idle at Wairoa there was no possibility of get Li ng from one por tion of the settl ment to another,' bridges were actually re constructed and re-floored on the South road, out of I lie loan. JN ow, in the case of the Ian;I luud it has always been held that a portion of the sums arising from sales of land should be spent in the district where they are raised. In Hawke's ' Bay that opinion has been endorsed by a ' resolution of Council, but it has never been carri d out. At Clyde, for instance, how . much of the land fund has been spent in , the district ? Put the land fund u a very different thing from the loan. The first may ' be abstracted from Llyde to improve the > roads about Porangahau, and there the • wrong ceases j but the loan bears interest. . and every man at Clyde pays just as much towards it as those at Porangahau ; there- ' fore the i: jus ice of seizing the capital unci - spending it far away, places Clyde under J eternal contr bution for the interest of money from which it derived no beneli'. , Colonel Whitmore remarked that lour or five members of Council only the ge nerosity to help him in trying to gat jus- I lice for the dis'iict he represented, and he < was out vot.'d even on the question oi j carrying cut the grants of the former session. Feeling lint an outlying settlement " such as Clyde could look for no justice ( under the Proviae-al system, the gallant ] colonel advised his constituents to seize ( the first opportunity of adopting the , 'County or any oilier system that would enable them to have a fuller m 'asure oi fair play. They were now ruled from Po 1 rangahau, and that was too far off for all < their necessities to be appreciated. Colone. 1 Whitmore said he owed his constituents an i apology for not resigning his seat in the Council sooner than he did But he pro ' duced a copy of the ifawke's Bay Times, i Bth April, in which he read that when his 1 Honor the Superintendent was asked by , IUQ householders to call the Council to gether, he replied " lie would do nothing I of the kind." One month's notice was 1 always given prior to the meeting of the 1 Creneral Assembly, aud an official iulima / lion of meeting sent to each member. Ti.t , Provincial Government liad sent him no notice whatever, and it was only ou the ] .April he savv in the Hawke's Bay < Herald —a paper which he did not get re ( gularly, aud was not an ollichl channel o! n.formaUon —that the Council was called for the fctil of May. Colonel Whitmore'a explanation met wiih the applause of the meeting. Mr Taylor moved a vole of thanks to ( Col Whitmore for i-i-s exertions on their behalf, and for his explanation to his contit ueuis, which was carried nem con. ' The meeting then brAe up.