Chamber of Commerce.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 110, 26 November 1908, Page 5

Chamber of Commerce.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir.--Through medium of the "Chronicle", I would like to appeal to the business men ani citizens of Te Kuiti, to call a meeting and elect a certain number to represent them in a Chamber of Commerce. Coming, as I did, a stranger to Te Kuiti some weeks ago, the first impression given me was that Te Kuiti did not warrant, the name that she bears all along the Main Trunk line, as the coming town of the King Country. I am positive that the same impression would appeal in the same way to many entering Te Kuiti for the first time. Later on, when travelling through some of the nearer back-block country, it was easy to understand why Te Kuiti should be spoken of from Wellington to Auckland as the "Leading Town" of the King Country, or I might even go further and say of the Main Trunk line between Fielding and Auckland. Sir, if I were to attempt to write here what I think of the possibilities of Te Kuiti, provdiing she loses no oportunity in catering for her extensive back country, it would simply be ridiculed by a great many of her oldest citizens. Most of the business men here are complaining of the quiet times. Well they might for their lethargy in public matters, and want of enterprise and patriotic feeling with regard to the welfare of the town in which they have cast their lot, is enough to damn the future of a less favourably situated place than this. It is the back country, and that only that is giving Te Kuiti the name she bears in the outside world today, and I want to ask your citizens if they are going to remain idle while other towns that are in the close proximity are using every endeavour to attract the trade of the backblocks, and cut off from us our only real asset. Now, "Unity is strength," and if the business men and citizens of Te Kuiti are half alive to their own interests, they will attend a meeting to be called shortly, and select from their number a committee of energetic and capable men to form a Chamber of Commerce, whose business it will be to confer with other local bodies and enquire : Why our school is open only three days a week? Why the work is all shelved on to one School Commissioner, when there ought to be a committee of sevan to attend to the requirements of a school with 150 children on its roll? Why there is nothing being done to improve the Railway Station and grounds? Why we have an esplanade in which no one takes an interest? Why we should be forced to accept Leasehold instead of Freehold tenure in Town properties? Why our backblock settlers, most of whom have been in occupation for upwards of seven years, should still be plodding through unmetalled roads? Why a man should get bumped out of his buggy within one mile of" Te Kuiti, through holes in the road not being filled in at a cost of one day's wages? And to impress upon the community of the town and country, the necessity of giving our Local Paper all the support it can, for through the medium of the press only can we make our requirements public, and so gain the support which means "remedy"; Also to inquire into numerous other matters that will be brought under your notice at the meeting to be called. —I am, etc., J. W. TOMPKINS. TO THE EDITOR. Sri. —Permit me to briefly draw your attention to certain irregularities in connection with the new Taumarunui Electoral Roll, the inconvenience and annoyance caused thereby at certain Poling Booths on Election Day. Myself and three others left our place on the 17th to record our votes, only to find after journeying some miles to the booth, that one only out of the four held a vote -my own name appearing twice for some inexplicable reason whilst the other three were disfranchised altogether. Further than this, out of thirteen assembled at Pio Poi Booth when we arrived only seven had the privilege of voting. Some of these were on the roll and voted last election others were sent to the Regsitrar by myself. This, together with the nonarrival of ballot papers for Te Kuiti on the Licensing question, surely calls for wi immediate explanation from the Registrar of Electors. —I am, etc., G. ELLIOTT, Mapui.