KAIHERE POST OFFICE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4919, 23 December 1925, Page 3

KAIHERE POST OFFICE.

3 QUESTION of site. ROWDY PUBLIC MEETING. t . A' verbal battle royal was waged in the Kaihere Hall on Monday evening over the vexed question of the poet office site. The meeting was perhaps u%the largest ever held in the halK and it. certainly was the rowdiest. The - question has-’ been a contentious one for many yean., and has been brought to a head by the destruction by fire on April 1 last, of the office that, was established by the many years lago. Many meetings have been held and many petitions forwarded to die -Postal. Department.' -Kaihere is in the Hamilton postal district, pnd the department Instruct- ■ ed Mr. Boyd, chief postmaster of thfc jdistrict, to visit Kaihere and make a recommendation ‘as to where the building previously in use as a post office at Ngatea was to be shifted to; • Mr. Boyd was present at the^ meeting . The : proceedings were very amusing? as obstructional tactics,' personal 1 r abuse, and were indulged in, and at times lijttle'order-prevailed. Mr W.'Wallace was appointed chair- " man. ' " . Owing to th*e bad state of Ngarua Road bur reporter was late in arriving. At the time of his advent Mr T. . McLoughlin - was arguing in support of tile proposed township site, pointing out the greater population of the . Ngarua Road district as' compared •-with tlie; district southward of Kai- ■ here. He. contended that it was not ' fair to establish a third post office, 'each about four miles apart, and leave a nine-iniles gap towards Ngatea. '• '.The chdirman pointed out that the settlers of the>nine miles towards did not all use the Kaihere office. ' . “ - Mr H. WaltoriTpointed out that that, • -land would shortly- be opened up, and intime would -carry thousands of sett ' tiers. The present Settlers had taken ’.up their land at the ballot, the. plans, ■ for which showed - post office, cream*v ery, police station; reserves, etc., near at hand. The Commissioner of Crown Lands had also/ verbally pointed out - this advantage.? L< ?.-'The chairman' contended that it was . not .a promise, and there was no rea-, son* to think that ‘ Government offices •swouldibe’established merely becausesites'were reserved on official, plans of the proposed village. ' • Mr''Nol l a’n'argued' that the present site was serving the. district of KaiHere; Ngarua, Torehape, and Manga-T-wijerb quite well, as it - was adjacent to'the school,' which was attended by - /the children from those districts. . At J this. stage dozens of speakers .claimed the floor at once. - The chairman, in reply to an inter- - iection.-said that he had certainly advocated a change in the site to the .store’ some years ago. -. ■' A Voice: When ( you had the stoi e. • Mr Reiddy gave some ancient his- - tory, showing that the Mangawhero people' had- been of great assistance in getting the first post office established. ' He said thdt the Ngarua Road • site-would'be preferable to him, but .he would not advocate the change in .fairness .to the Mangawhero people. ■He also pointed out that' if f he site . was shifted the Mangawhero. scholars ” would be. and sent to the ..Patetonga school. Kaihere would thus ?. lose the, services of one teacher. Mr T. - McLoughlin contended that .-the- post'office should be put on the Government 'site. Some'of Mr McLoughlin’s next statements produced uproar, cries of "order” and "withdraw” were very prevalent. A long argument also ensued between a woman who demanded : the right to speak and a man who rose _ to a J point' of order. ' . , .'Mr J.-E? Davies, charged the'chairman wtih showing bias, but he was "eventually, compelled to sit down. When order was restored Mrs W. -''.Benny, pointed out that she had been the- first postmistress, and that Mr ; Casjsin had put up the late post office ‘ and .had said .that in time to come a . proper office should be erected on the Government, site. She argued that 7 .the site should be chosen according io the quantity of mail' matter arriving for-the settlers of the various 1' districts. ■ She -also pointed. out that the ,las.t seven” postmistresses had re--v. sided 0n... Ngarua Road and had to ~ walk, lip the. hill-and- cross the creek when it was in . flood. There were •’five ; children attending the Kaihere ■ school, from Mangawhero, and these ’were .from three families, one of • which received its' mail at Patetonga. If the five children were .taken from 1 ith'e school there would, be no chance ,<of a teacher being lost. Mr A. B. McDonald pointed out that rthdugh' there, were only five Manga•Wherb attending the school, .ithey carried'the mail for all the set~;tiers ,of the road, the hill site wap ‘.the most central for the whole district served by the post office. To shift’the office .as suggested would hot ' confer, a benefit’on the Ngarua people in-ratio to the disadvantage that the . Mangawhero people would have to . .suffer.; Another’argumenf betw.een Mr J. E. - Davies and the chairman followed, and the chariman offered to leave the ch.air, but the meeting chose to quash ■ Mr. Davies, - Mr E' .Harris deplord the of the meeting and moved that the matter be put to the vote at once. - Mr Nolan seconded. - ' • - The chairman said that he held decided views on'the subject and desired •to state them. It had been unfortunate for him that he had been appointed -to the chair. He pointed but the position of. the Mangatarata, Torehape, Kaihere, and Patetonga offices, and zasked what w.as to prevent the Mangawhero people . from securing a post office of their own. In his opinion the present site was the best one. 2 lA heated argument ensued between ’ the .chairman, Mr McLoughlin, and ■‘Mr Davies amid such an uproar that ' little could be heard. Finally Mr ’Davies, was forcibly put into his seat. The purport of Mr McLoughlin’s remarks was that Mr Wallace had /'"divided-the district on the same question

petition seeking a change to the store.

Mr Wallace denied this statemnt, and the argument waxed, for a long time.

In reply to Mr Nolan the chief postmaster said that the additional cost of cartage to the more distant site would be what the carters tendered. The department .would not fix a price.

In reply to Mrs Benny .the chief postmaster stated that if a vote was to be taken those who had signed the various petitions should be el igible to vote. He noticed that some names appeared on contrary petitions.

An argument ensued as to the meaning of certain petitions, and drifted to the subject of who should be elig> j'e to-vote, but there we re repeated cies to have the petition circulated by Mr McLoughlin real to the meeting. This demand was put in the form of a motion.

Mr McLoughlin said that the 'petition was in* the chief postmaster’ll' hards, and it was for him to state whether it should be read. The chief postmaster remained lent. ’

Mr N. Cowdrey pointed out ‘that if a vote was taken there would be endless argument ay to the qualifications of the voters. It. Would be preferable to leave the matter to the chief postmaster.

It wais' proposed by Mr Nolan, and seconded by Mr Smerle, junr., that a vote be taken, and that two scrutineers be appointed to decide who "ffiouid vote.

After . argument Messrs E. Harris and G. Tizard were appointed scrutineers-

At the request of the chief portmaster a vote was taken to determine whether the decision of the ballot would be accepted by the people’of the district without further trouble, and all present except Mr J- E. Davies, agreed. Arising out of-the “'question as to whether the vote should, 'be a secret one or not, .the suggestion of leaving the quetsion to the chief postmaster as- an arbitrator was debated nt length, until Mr Boyd intimated that he did not desire to act in that ■ , —J capacity. Several amendments, were moved, and it was suggested that the ballot be a secret one and the result not'not disclosed, to the public, but that the voting papers -be handed .to, Mr Boyd for the information of.the department only until .such time as .it made its decision. A motion to .that effect, however, was defeated, as, also was a motion to the effect that the ballot be an open one. A motion in favour of a secret ballot was then carried. The ballot resulted in 43 votes being c.ast in favour of the present site and 31 in favour of the proposed site on Ngarua Road. The result was announced by Mr Boyd, and the meeting closed with a vote of thanks to him for attending the meeting.