RATEPAYERS’ CRITICISMS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4475, 4 October 1922, Page 3

RATEPAYERS’ CRITICISMS

OF PLAINS COUNTY COUNCIL. A MEETING AT TURUA. "THE OLD BURNING QUESTION.” That the Hauraki Plains County Council is still as unpopular as ever with members of the Turua community was exemplified at a meeting, of the Turua Ratepayers’ Association on Monday evening. Mr D. G. McMillan presided over a small attendance. Exception was taken by the chairman at the action of the Council's workmen in filling in holes in the road with mud, and he was indignant that Turua and Netherton ridings should be classed by a county councillor as the “Balkans of the Plains.” He strongly maintained that the ratepayers in that area had a real grievance.

' The chairman said that he wished to speak on the old burning question, roads. He said County Council workmen were filling up the holes in the road in his area with pure mud. "You all know we are classed as the Balkans of the Plains,” he said, “and we may as well act up to our name.” They had been promised metal, and one ratepayer who had paid a lot of rates had seen activity at his gate, but was disappointed to find that the holes had been filled in with. mud. It was not so bad in the Netherton riding, but when they came into the Turua area they had started filling in the holes with mud.

A Voice: You need to agitate like Huirau.

The chairman said he .would like to make a few remarks about Turua and Netherton, which were now the. best advertised ridings in the district. Perhaps some ratepayers were guilty of making a noise, but they had a grievance and were not being listened to. Was the Council, he asked, making history or making a mess of things ?

A Voice : Making a mess of things. The chairman took exception to Cr. Mayn’s reference that the Turua and Netherton ridings were the "Balkans of the Plains.” Cr. Mayn had a short while ago objected to the bridge, but at last meeting brought a petition from Patetonga in favour; of it, Cr. Mayn was making more noise than the Turua and Nethetron ridings. ’’We have a grievance,” maintained the chairman, "and lhe has not.” They were not merely “agip the government,” as the county chairmap had stated. He asked why did not a certain councillor stick to his guns and not resign from the Council ?

A Voice: Gouty knees. The chairman said that in the new riding boundaries alii, "the noisy section" was put into one riding. They could then make all the noise they could with only one representative. He wished to contradict the statement that they were against the government. They were not. They had a grievance, and they were entitled to speak. He asked, “If our oridges are to be county matters why are not our main roads entitled to be county matters also ?’’ A Voice: Certainly.

Mr R. Baker maintained that the Turua riding would be a hard riding to keep up, as wfath the Kirikiri bridge there would be a main road through to the Waikato, “It’s a very cunning move on the part l 'of the Council,” he said. "They’ve put us into a very hot corner.”