AN EXPLANATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume II, Issue 86, 22 June 1880, Page 2

AN EXPLANATION.

TO THE EDITOR OV THE MANAWATU HEKALI) Sir; — In justice. to Mr Hayns will you allow me to give you the correct v, rsion about the inland road at Horowhenua In your piper today, you say an arrangement wjih m*ide that the natives were to do the work on the roud, i'hisis perfectly true as regards Ngatiraukawa, but not so with tht; Horowhenua natives. In Major - Kemp'letter to tho Council gruntiug the land for the road, no reservation for hia tribe to do ide worn is made; but, as a matter of ■fairnes"-, Mr Hayns and myself went v. torowlieinu (ou purpose) some time in the beginning of this year, and offered the work to the natives at 25s per chain They refused to do it at that price, -inco then nearly every time I havo returned from Foxton I liav*> wet them on the beach, and pressed them to lake it. After these repeated refusals the Council at last determined to let the woik by tender. This, of course, tied Mr Hayns. The arangement the natives were willing to accept, according to iVlr Cootes' statement to you, ia very different from that made with Ngatiraukawa. These took the work for 255, and sijrned the agreement to do it. If labour had risen they would have lost ; but labour going down they were lucky enough to make os per chain ; thia being in no way a payment for tho laud. The Horowhenua iiMtivett, however, want the Council to pay th**.in 5s per ciiaiu as a profit, aud then take the c.iaucd whether the work will cost 2 : » per chain or more. If they weie so willing to do the work why did they not send in a tender on the 7th June, at -iss. when, h;id thoy done so, it is most iikeiy the Council would have accopted it, to save trouble. The fact i?, they are utterly opposed to the road, and wouid nut give way even now if they could help it ; nut Major Kemp, the trustee for the block, and Kawana Hun'm, another chief interested in it, having given th ir consent, they know ib will be made, and so are coming or pretending to come round a little. It is Major Kemp's absence at Murimotu that has caused tho de'ay ; hud he been nearer, judging from his two letters now in the office of the County Council, the work would long ago have been commenced. I think I have shown thnt Mr Hiyns has treated the natives fairly, and that they have nothing of which they can in reason conn-lain. They cannot stop the road. In the interests of the whole of the West Coast it must go on; but if ; hey object to tho action of their trustee i v giving the laud, they might send a written obJHCtion to the Council, which would hold as good in any Court, I believe, as the active obstruction they now threaten. The work could then go on wittiout their losing any nf their rights, and give employment to many through the winter, and they could ti-jjht the matter out in any le^al way they v ight think proper. Hoping I huve not t.'e-tpossed too much oa your valuable spaoe, I am, &c, John Kebbell, Councillor Horowhenua Hiding. Te liau Aw«, Ohau, June 15th, 1880.