PATEA COUNTY MAIL PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1880. SEPARATE COUNTY.

Patea Mail, 7 September 1880, Page 2

PATEA COUNTY MAIL PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1880. SEPARATE COUNTY .

Hawera wants several things. It wanted, the other day, to stop the harbor expenditure at New Plymouth; and it took certain steps which had the effect of procuring for New Plymouth a fresh parliamentary sanction for the harbor expenditure. Then Hawera wanted to form itself into a municipality, tacking Normanby on as a make-weight upon terms which would render Normanby subservient to aiiy schemes which Hawera residents might wish to carry out. Now Hawera wants ,separate .County, to be conterminous with the Hawera Registration District. What is the end desired by this change ? Is it that the Road Boards desire to be independent of the County Council. , If so, the mover of

the first resolution at Saturday’s meeting has misunderstood the position, for he advocated a separate County: in order that Road Boards might merge their individuality in that of the now County Council, and thereby effecta, great saving. Apply the same principle to the Patea County Council, and a still greater saving would be effected. How is it that Mr Hunter and Mr Cane, who are members of Patea Council, could propound or sanction that view before the meeting at Hawera, and have yet neglected to advocate this so-called beneficial change in discharging their public duty to the Patea Council ? If ;■ this economy would be good for a new County, it must be good for the old., 'lf'the new Council merges all Road Boards within its boundaries, wliat will become of the newly formed Board (or Ngaire Distiict ? The Chairman of the Ngaire Board, when at Patea, would abolish County Councils to increase the power of Road Boards; yet ho attends a meeting at Hawera for the very purpose of setting up.,.a new . County. Council. The Chairman of the Hawera Road Board advocates the amalgamation of Road Boards in order that County Councils ■ may “ effect a large saving” by absorbing Road Boards. Arc these the leaders who are to form a new happy family ? Public men should be at least consistent. It is no use blowing hot and cold on the

same question. Is this demand for a separate County based on proper grounds ? Hawora wants a new County in order that Hawera may he declared the County town, and have the County institutions centred there. Look at the consequences. Norraanby is aslaod to assist in aggrandising Hawera for the purpose of preventing Normanby from outstripping Hawera in the long-run. Why should Normanby settlers, who are not inferior in intelligence, bo expected to tie themselves to the wheel of the Hawera coach ? A proposition of this kind is no compliment to the common-sense of Normanby. For what special claim can Hawera have to be declared the new Comity town ? Is Hawera the natural centre of the new district ? It is not enough that Hawera lias a few more houses than Normanby at present, for the situation of Normanby as a junction town, and as having room to expand in small allotments, should satisfy any unbiassed observer that the prospects of Normanby are less doubtful than those of other places of greater pretension. We have no sympathy with petty jealousies of this kind. They arise from a speculative spirit among a few persons who seek to enhance the value of pro" perty or of building-sections by grasping at and appropriating advantages which would not accrue in natural course, but must be seized with a rush. If a new County be required in the interest of the district, could any body of statesmen bo expected to locate the centre of that County at the remote end of it ? Hawera is seeking to create an unfairness in the new County that does not exist in the old. Hawera is claiming that a town on the border shall be declared the “ centre.” If the politicians at Hawera wish to act in a fair spirit, if they wish to make a aviso and nnseliish arrangement for the expected settlers on the Plains, they will not look to IlaAvera as the natural and proper centre of that new County, but will declare that the capital of the iigav Egmont Comity shall be fixed at Manaia. Hawera is blessed with'a few politicians avlio arc so anxious to transform their township into a metropolitan city,, a sort of West Coast Chicago, that they haven’t time to look facts in the face It Avas a sort of rude revelation for them to learn the other day, through Mr Bryce, that Hawera is still on the border of civilisation.

Hawera also wants to have the new Land Board centred at Hawera. Suppose Normanby tacked on to Hawera as a combined municipality ; and suppose all Road Boards within Egmoht County to be merged and absorbed in the County Council,, .what would be the: effect ? How would Normanby like this centralisation of all things at Hawera ? When the new Manaia township, and the

newer township at Olcaiawa, had grown ] to respectable proportions some five ! years hence, would* they consider they had been well and wisely treated by those . shrewd ~ unselfish tribunes, the Hawera politicians ? This is'the kind of benevolence that begins with No. 1, and ends there. .jr, ■ ; .