HUTT COUNTY ELECTIONS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5483, 23 October 1878, Page 2

HUTT COUNTY ELECTIONS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sir, —The forthcoming elections for county councillors for the Hutt County are already beginning to create considerable interest throughout the various ridings, and from what I hear, none will be more closely contested than Karori-Makara, which is in tho immediate vicinity, and I might almost say part, of the city of Wellington. For some time past very energetic canvassing has been going on, and the present members, Messrs. Lancaster and Monaghan, will have somewhat formidable opponents in the new candidates, Messrs. Graham and Finnimore. I am informed that the latter gentlemen are being brought forward expressly by the party in favor of the Polhill Gully road from Karori to Wellington, As most of your readers are aware, this road is intanded to leave the centre of Karori village, passing by Mr. Donald's nursery, thence through the waterworks reserve to Wellington. Among the ratepayers themselves,! believe, there is a considerable diversity of opinion as to the general advantage of the projected line. Be this as it may, this is tho particular ticket on which the new candidates are basing their canvass for election. Messrs, Lancaster and Monaghan, on the other hand, have as their ticket a ‘slight deviation of the present road to Karori near the *• Devil's Bridge,” which virtually does away with tho steep gradients of the line now in use ; and also a new road of less than three-quarters of a mile in length, which can be mude with easy gradients, and at a comparatively small expense, connecting Baker’s Hill with Te Aro. This line, I understand, will not interfere in any way with the purity of the city water supply, thus removing at once the great objection* which has always been made to the counter scheme by the Wellington Corporation —for even its advocates admit that in the event of its being carried out it will be impossible to keep the general road sewage from going into the new reservoir. The friends of Messrs. Graham and Fiunimore have tho advantage of being first in the field, and are working very hard to put their men in. They have already secured numerous pledges, particularly among the more recent arrivals in the Biding; whilst their opponents are depending to a very great extent on the older settlers, who, I hear, arc anything but satisfied by Messrs. Graham and Finnimore’s persistent and successful opposition to do anything to improve the present road, which they maintain, with tho vote of the County Council and other aid promised, could have been easily carried out last year, but for the action of the gentlemen in question. Still, both sides are confident of success,Jmfc the winning men will, to my mind, belong* to the party that works hardest; and if the present members do not move about a good deal more than they have been doing lately, notwithstanding their long qnd faithful services to tho district, their places at the Hutt County Council table will very soon know them no more,—l am, &c., Loosee-Onv