THE MEETING AT STONEY CREEK.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 82, 24 July 1878, Page 3

THE MEETING AT STONEY CREEK.

! } , k TP THE kpiTOE. Sfer^Tw&'omch disappointed m looking •over ySur s ißs'ue of this morning to find that you had decided not to publish areport~of" the Stoney Creek meeting on the 18th As I jtook^the opportunity at tha£ meeting" to 'explain to some of the settlers most vitally interested my proceedings at the Woodville meeting, and to reiterate before McFsrs.Snelson and Dallympie^fhe 'opinions- >T had' previously expressed of their action, m tho matter of the I^ower J'grryr bridge «erm the South Bank Toad^ljhppe;, as the report is not published, thatQyouj.witf, allow -me to make, my explanation m your columns, as I have been most unjnstly attacked both at tho Fitz-° herberfc meejting , and., by" Mr Jßutherfqrd m liia letter^appearing m your isfefte of 'the 17th inst. And first, l^will r- - tate what I said-^t' : W6odville; 'and again at Stoney £Creekr"That with the legitimate efforts or to obtain roads I fully sympathiseV nor have I ever denied or doubted that they naturally enough have press^Messrs Snelson and Dalrymple to get ;^|ir^r^ads;.made. I can quite feel.for the position of the people at Fitzherberton, as wejnjilns.district have suffered similarly under the^administratiqn of the t Manawntu Highway Board before our separation. "What I object to— and as a Warden of the Manchester Highway District it is my bounden duty to do so— is the action taken by. Messrs Snelsbh and Dalrymple to divert the funds for the erection gf abridge, which ■would afford readier means . of communication with Napier to the settlers m the Manchester Highway District, to the construe- , tion of a road along the south bank of the Manawatu outside that district, except for «ome four miles running through the Messrs Butherfbrd's purchase. If those gentlemen had. sininly pressed the Government to make roads m Fitzherbertbri, and nothing more, they would have met with no opnoBitiOtt* from" me, rather tho reverse ; and I ■will now proceed to justify that opposition by detailing the evidence which has convinced me and many others of the fact that those gentlemen were forwarding, whether wittingly, or, unwittingly, the interests of Messrs Rutherford as "speculators, to the detriment of the inhabitants of the Terrace End of Palmerston, the ratepayers of Stoney Creek^ and of the rest of the Manchester Highway! District; Mr Dalrymple stated at the Stoney Creek meeting that he moved m the matter of road versus bridge some months .before, the. Messrs Rutherford acquired the ltJOO'aerfcs along the south bank. Tliis.i I- contradicted at the time, and on looking up- the. papers referring thereto, I find thatj Mr Halcombe. offered the land m question^' to Messrs. Kutherford on the 6th February for £2 ; per acre, and that at Messrs. llutherford'g request this offer, was left open till the end of the month. On the 15th February, Mr-Dalrymple 'carried, m the Manawatulfigh.way Board, a resolution whereby the Chairman was asked to represent to the Government theadvantages of the ; . road along the south bank, and affirming "that if ouch a road be made", the necessity for art 'expensive bridge at the Lower Ferry will be avoided for a time, and aiconsiderable saving effected, as the estimatedrcost of constructing the road, inelud- ■ ing j bridges : and metal, is £5000, whereas -the estimated cost of the bridge is £10,000.!': On the 18th February, m the County Council;; during the absence of Mr Halcombe and myself, Mr Snelson moved, "That the ■ Chairman ask the Government to assist the Manawatu Highway Board by a grant m I aid for the construction of the south Bide" road," and stated m support of the motion that;" there .was another thing theebnstrue- • tion of this road would do away with m a great inea^ureTrthenecVJssity of 'the Lower Gorge Ferry vt r thp Manawatu, which has lately been a Source- of annoyance to the mail &c." .Imagine the inference the Minister for Public Works would draw on reading -side by side, the letters of the Council and Highway Board embodying the'; above' resolution. - One body affirms that them is no -necessity for the bridge, nnd the mover of the other resolution states, uncontradicted, that m a great 'measure thereiß none for. the present ferry. ;.A|r: though, , with characteristic wariness, ho re-, frarns from directly mentioning the bridge, ■^Xlpok.upon Mr Snelson's argument against put in' an even stronger form than Mr' and as an endorsement of that gentleman's resolution. ■ ; ' v Now as. to the connection of Messrs Sneleqn and Dairy m pie's action with the Messrs ButherfordV purchase, and the alleged intention of the Messrs Eutherford to lay off n^itpwnsWp on their, land; ; Of course, m ordinary circumstanres no one could reasonably object ,to Mr- Eutherford. doing as he likes with hia "own land, but I may remind that gentleman, thttt qn my asking him our usual question to land buyers, "Will you occupy! jand; settle upon this land yourself if k we yjelT it to. you t">he ; assured/me jhe would. l- Y^i^hqut this the; f land jw y ould .certainly not have .been sold to him ; and I maintain that any intention to lay off a.^tqwnship was ihviolation of 'the understanding on .which he obtained' the land, eyeri thbugh now, through the force of circumstances, such ah intention may .be abandoned, ~ / ■■■".' '' Twill now, proceed to show the grounds for my belief that his atturance to me was one ' of those unfounded ■ sfatementt he so .much reprobates m his letter to your paper. Mr Snelton admitted at Stoney Creek that he was consulted by Mr Eutherford about cutting up his land into small farms. Mr JAulon stated at the aamo meeting that though he would mention no names, a map of the land/in question, shewing a township ,with, main road to Napier running through it, had been put m his hands m Wellington by a well-known speculator, and bis opinion of the project asked. Mr Haloombe further states, still at the same meeting, that Mr Henry Jackson, the Chief Surveyor m Wellington, had warned him that Mr Baird ■was m the Eutherford purchase. Mr Knorpp, thinking that Mr Haloombe was aware of the affair, inadvertently mentioned to him that Mr Baird had been . telling him (Mr Enorpp) of his purchase of 1600 acres of land from the Corporation, and that he was going to cut it, or a part of it, into a township, the balance, 1 presume, being intended for Mr Eutnerford's *small farms. Mr Eutherford also admitted to Mr Hal-

eomho, on being mproaijliecl wit.li his breach of < iio lond fide occupation, "that he saw no hurm m cutting his land up into small farms." Of eourso, ihough I knew of this before the Stoney Creek meeting, I did not feel myself at liberty to mention it until Mr Xdiilon and Mr Halcombo had made it public. It will also be noted how very feeble is Mr Rutherford's denial of the township scheme m his letter of the 17th. He. does not say oufright, V ".I never 'ha'd ■ anvßUch intention,"\but merely, ',fl : never said so to anyone." Let the curiously co ; incident nature of the rlnfc«* giren above V>o | niarked : Messrs Rutherford have the land on offer f^om the 6th February till, the end of the month, on the 15jK and ilßfch Messrs Snelson arid" Dulrymple's new-bom enthusiasm for the Filzlfevbert Bottlers mnkos itsolf shewn m the resolutions above quoted. I say now-born enthusiasm advisedly, as; it appears from the report of th ; b Fifzifierberton, meeting that the rates raised in 'the Fitzherberto'n district, and their equivalent subsidies for ithe laat five" years, have not been spent on the FitzhorbcVtori roads, but on , the Paimerston side of tho river, by the Board of which Mr Snelson is an ex-Chair-man and Mr Dalrymple, a present. Warden.' I think no unprejudiced person rai reading the above will hesitate m deciding that a very strong effort was made to do away with the bridge, and thereby "divert the main road from Napier from its present course through tho site of the 1 proposed township, to the successful ■ sale *of which " that main road was a necessity ; and that the coincidence of the dates of the various movements made may well excuse any oufcBider putting that coincidence down as the fresult of co-operation and not of accident. :I may mention, in -order to soothe Mr Rutherford's wounded susceptibilities,, that, any reference to a gross swindle^^ was made to any diversion of the bridge fund by tlie Government from its legitimate-object,- after land had been sold by them on the faith of its erection ; , and I may also remind the Chairman of the Fitzherberton meeting, who stigmatizes my action as the quintessence of coolness m the lieutenant of an organised company of speculators, that it bears no comparison as far as coolness goes, with a late application of his to the Waste Lands Board for a large block of land itf the Fitz-^---herberton District at ss. au acre, for speculative purposes, which was, as mny be expected>- declined by that body. Were the Feilding Corporation defunct to-mbrrqw, I should still. continue to act ; as I -have done |n my own interest, and m the interests of my fellow-ratepayers whom I represent m the Manchester Highway District.— l am, &C., '. ..:■■'■••.. ■"■ '■•'ru ,-', ■-D.:H;-MioABTHra.- , July 20, 1878. |