The Kumara Times. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1877.

Kumara Times, Issue 257, 1 August 1877, Page 2

The Kumara Times. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1877.

By request ,of the Westland County Clerk, the West Coast Times yesterdaypublished the following:—

.: V:On the 28th June last the subject of proclaiming a Cemetery Reserve at Kumara was brought under the notice of the County Council by Mr Seddon by resolution, which was agreed to, as follows—“ That the Chairman take the necessary steps to have a Cemetery Reserve declared for Kumara.”

On the next day the following letter "was forwarded to the Chief Commissioner of Waste Lands:—“ County Chairman's Office, June 28, 1877. Sir, —-At the recent sitting of the County Council the urgency of declaring a Cemetery Reserve at Kmnara was brought under the notice of the Council by Mr Seddon, one of the representatives of the district, and a resolution was carried requesting me to take initiatory steps to have tbe reserve forthwith declared. I have the honor, therefore, to request that yon will be good enough to have a reserve for cemetery purposes at once marked out on this populous and important gold-field.—l have the honor, &c., EL L. Robinson, Gounfy Chairman."

On July 11th, a reply was received from the Lands Office, stating that the Chief Surveyor had been instructed to visit the Kumara township, with the view, of selecting a site suitable. As far as the Council are concerned, therefore,'everything has been done, and with .due celerity. The Council have not icqntrol, oyer the Waste Lands of the Cfown, nor yet over the Chief Surveyor*

although the Kumara Times and some of the Kumara people appear to think so.”

Whilst we are,.ofcourse, obliged to the County Clerk for,the information conveyed to ns and “ some of the Kumara people,” in tho last sentence above, we venture to question the accuracy of the statement, that “as far as the Council are concerned, everything has been done, and with due celerity.” The cemetery has been a pressing need at Kumara for nearly a twelve-month; The County Council have beeen in existence since the beginning of the present year, but took no "steps to have a Cemetery Reserve declared till nearly six months had elapsed. Even when at last the matter was brought before them by Mr Seddon, we do not clearly see that “ due celerity” was used. For, though the above communication to the West Coast Times is rather hazy as to dates, giving the 28th of June as the day after the 28th June, we suppose we must take it for granted that the letter to the Chief Commissioner of Waste Lands was written on the day named, since on the face of it, it shows that the copy is a verbatim One, But we would recal to the memory of the County Clerk the fact, which no doubt his minute book will convince him of, that the resolution of Mr Seddon’s re the Kumara Cemetery was moved and ; agreed to on the 21st and not the 28th of June. A week’s delay, therefore, appears to have taken place in the office of the County Council, a delay which is, to our thinking, (subjectjof course to [correction by the County Clerk,) not deserving of the name of “ due celerity”