BOARD OF WORKS-SPECIAL RATES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 18, 21 January 1873, Page 2

BOARD OF WORKS-SPECIAL RATES.

To the Editor of the Nelson Evening Mail. : f-_B,— On passing through >the part of Nelson the other day I' saw some veYyexpensive works going on, apparently for the benefit of one or two individuals only-— 'not for ihe general good, I naturally inquired whether it was being done by the parties to .be, benefitted, or. whether the Board of Works 1 had uhdertalcen suW'a partial job, and intended to pay.for it out of* the general fund, or whether a ■*• special 'rate " would be levied in the : immediate neighborhood of such expensive work, as.it appeared to me to be not of the slightest advantage to the" pnblic. The questioned individual,; apparently tired of my inquisitiveness, looked at me knowingly, and said—" Why; don't you' know thaMs a member of the Board of Work's that lives there ; and 'tis supposed he. means to retire wh6n;;the job is finished."-. Now'.as I have, heard a great deal about "6peci*l rating" for a sewer in another part of the town which would benefit the whole population, I thought that the money so extravagantly spent for a, doubtful benefit, with others of a like nature (lor instance, spending vast sums of money on roads without traffic, as on the. roads near the properties of other members of the Board, watering the streets on wet days, weeding the roads with a pickaxe, paying unnecessary salaries, Sec, &c.,) would do for the construction of the said sewer without additional expense to the tax- ridden ratepayers. I am, &c , Pedestrian.