ELTHAM ROAD LOAN.

Opunake Times, Volume I, Issue 26, 28 September 1894, Page 3

ELTHAM ROAD LOAN.

(to the eoitor.)

S.R, —On peru“L ; 1 he issue of the Opunake Ti ies cf the £sfii instant, I tcok careful net... of your leado, cn the subject of the raising of a loan fer the Eltham Road, in which you state that certain parties had been endeavouring to mislead the ratepayers with regard t this important question. You then inform us that tvvont-five of the ratepayers in the proposed loan area have voted in favour of the lo°u. It would appear strange that a petition should have been recently signed by tweutyfive of the ratepayers interested, and forwardod to the Government, objecting to the proposed loan for various reasons. It is obvious that tbe ratepayers must, in the first instance, have voted for the ban, without having really weighed the matter at r.ll, and it would appear that their action was purely f he result of agitation on the part of a few persons. It is a very efoy matter for disinterested individuals tu point out tc the ratepayers what they deem tc be the best course to pursue in such a case; but it becomes a “ horse of another colour ” when the uuforcu ate ratepayers have to pay • brdugh fhe nose for t’ :e privilege of following the lead of sue*, gentlemen without c! .> consulting their own interests. . Vdently such lias been ibe case in this matter under discussion. An error of judgment was doubtless made in tbe first placa by ratepayers in the block voting in favour of tbe loan. In the face, however, of the information that the foil had been faultily prepared, either through the ignorance or negligence of the couniy clerk, it saeins monstrous that the ratepayers were led to suppose that a maximum rate of 2£d should be struck, whereas it afterwards transpired that they could be liable to a rate of Bid. Nov/, sir, I uphold that the ratepayers who voted for tbe loan d-d not vote for it as it nojv stands, nor would they have agreed to such a proposal at all. In support of my contention, I maintain that the petition against the loan proposol is ample proof as to tbe feelings of the ratepayers concerned. The whole matter having been thoroughly misunderstood by rateyapers . rom beginning to end, and such glaring errors having been made by tbe county 'authorities, and allowed by them to go fo ward, the legality of the question would appear to be of a very questionable nature.—l am, &c., Interested Party.