FOXTON.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5077, 2 July 1877, Page 3

FOXTON.

(FROM ODR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) The monthly meeting of the County Council was held on Wednesday last, but beyond hearing the report of the chairman and some other business of minor importance being gone through, nothing was done, as the members decided to adjourn to attend the Choral Society’s concert in the public hall. The chairman’s monthly report alluded very prominently to the proposed separation movement, and takes your Feiiding correspondent to task for the gross inaccuracy, or say tho great disingenuity, exhibited in his financial statements. In order to gain the sympathy of outsiders and farther the chances of separation being granted, your Feiiding correspondent states that “ the contribution of Manchester and Kiwi tea Hidings to the county revenue is £1695 13s. 9d., and that the expenditure applicable to those ridings is only £557 13s. 3d.” In answer to this the chairman laid before the council (in his report) a very different statement, viz.: Proportion of—Executive, 2-7ths, £BS 12s. 6d.; engineer, £100; dog tax, £l2; miscellaneous, £6B 15s. -id.; printing, £54 Bs. 4d.; hospitals, £29 7s. Bd.; roads—formation, £300; maintenance —Awahmi to Feiiding, £179; Stoney Creek to Gorge, £110; Gorge ferry, £4O; con-

tingencies actually required, £80; proportion of maintenance of road from Palmerston to ■Tn.Bulls, l-4th, £44 16s. Gel.; total, £llO4 oa._ 4d. This is rather different from tho figures given by yonr correspondent. He alludes to the ex- ■■■, pen'sesef the Manawatu ond Manchester Highway Boards not exceeding 10 per cent., while at the same time he is well aware that one official in connection therewith receives a salary of .-‘2OO ; the rates and subsidy being £2IOO. I would ask him who pays for the printing, oifice rent, stationery, &o. The fact is that the Highway Boards’ expenses are nearer 20 per cent, than 10 ; and he knows it, but it would not suit his book to say so. I have said little about the petty jealousy exhibited in certain coteries connected with the Council, as X hoped they would have disappeared ere this. The truth is that had a certain gentleman been elected as chairman of the Council, ar.d had another place been chosen for its meetings, no move would have been made in the way of separation. An impartial observer of facts cannot but be convinced of this. Ho opportunity has been thrown away by certain parties to make out that the Council either has acted, is acting, or will act unjustly against the Manchester and Kiwitea Hidings. The keynote was struck when Councillor Halcombe moved for. another Councillor for the Manchester and Kiwitea Ridings, and in moving the resolution he acknowledged that if his motion were carried there could notbe an election for eighteen months. The consideration of the motion was postponed for twelve months, soma members wishing to wait the action of Parliament with regard to t 5 » Counties Bill. A redistribution of seats was advocated rather than increase the number of Councillors. Nothing could be more reasonable than to wait, especially as the motion if carried could not take effect for eighteen months. At the next meeting of the Manchhester Highway Board its members were told that the Council had refused to grant them another representative. To use the mildest term, this statement was the, reverse of candid ; but it did its work, it was a peg on which a cry of injustice and for separation could be hung ; and no opportunity has been lost of making out that injustice is still being perpetrated. In, the Advocate lately appeared some correspondence between Mr. McArthur and the Government, relative to a certain sum which he said had 1 been offered for making roads, but which the Council would not let him have. Any one reading that correspondence must have felt that the Council was acting unjustly in refusing to accept the said sum from Government and hand it over to the-Manchester and Kiwitea Ridings. This was doubtless what was intended. I did not believe the Council guilty of such base action, and therefore called on the chairman for an explanation. He showed me that it was Councillor Halcombe who moved the resolution declining to accept the terms contained in the circular in which the said £350 was offered. The money was refused at the instance of the member for Manchester, and now we have the member for Kiwitea complaining of the action of the Council.

I have not gone into the financial statement as fully as I intend to do next week, nor have I said much of the doings of those who are, for interested purposes, pulling the strings behind the scenes. This I will do at another time, as I do not wish to weary your readers by saying too much at once. There is, however, one question that X should like an answer to. Is the report true, that the Government, having a large area of available land at the back of the Manchester Block, wished to open np the Kimbolton-road, and offered to work with the Corporation in doing so, but that the Corporation declined, and wanted the Government to do the whole ? Is it true that the Government have taken another line, and why ? ."!■", Baker’s Hibemicon attracted good houses on Saturday and Monday. They expressed themselves very pleased with the Foxton Hall. On Wednesday our Choral Society gave their annual concert, and wound up their year of existence with a ball that although far less costly than, the previous one was very well patronised and in every respect enjoyable. Scarlatina has not yet quite disappeared from the district, but the cases are now very slight.