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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 239, 8 October 1880, Page 2

To the Editor or thb " Evening Mail." Sir— l saw by a late issue of tbe Evening Mail that, in reply to a resolution of the Motueka Highway Board icquestiug the Waimea County Counoil to rescind a resolution of theirs declaring a certain drain in the Riwaka distriot a public drain, the Council decided not to comply with the request of the Motueka Highway Board. The drain iv question is about 90 chains in length, and one-half of that length runs along the boun^dary of and through a section belonging tb the proposer of the resolution in the County Council. Did he tell the Council that fact? That drain is of great benefit to a few owner's of land in the swamp, and has hitherto been kept jointly by the Highway Board and those owning the land that it bounds; ie is of no benefit to the generality, of the ratepayers', and it has no right to be kept wholly out of the rates. The members of the Highway Board are surely the best judges of what is best for the good of the district as a whole 1 , and it shows a. very bad spirit in the County Couucil not to accede to their request-in this case. There are plenty of other drains in the Riwaka district just as necessary to bi declared public drains as tho one in. question, hut the proposer of the resolution in the County Council has no interest in ikcm. I think the sooner he is relieved of his dutie» in the Council and relegated to theahades of obscurity the belter it -will be for us ratepayers. — I am, &c., Ratepayer. Riwaka, Oct. 6, 1880.