MANUTAHI MEETING.

Patea Mail, 18 November 1881, Page 4

MANUTAHI MEETING.

The following additional question* were put at the Manutahi meeting on Monday evening : Mr Peacock : Would you endeavor to get an endowment for Patea harbor ? Major : Yes ; I was always in favor of granting an endowment. G. W. Gane : There ought to he some way to carry on the work. The Board is £IOO short every year. Everything is mortgaged, and is under the Government finger. Major ; Not so. The Harbor Board got £IO,OOO without ample security. Gane : Yes ; but the Government could take everything. (Voice : “ The breakwater, too.” Laughter.) Mr Christie : Will there be a polling booth at Manutahi on the day of elections ? Major : I dare say. There was one last year. Mr West : Does Government intend to take any land behind the Plains to recoup the colony for the loss in arresting Te Whiti ? Major ; If they thought, to bring matters to a peaceable end, that it was not advisable to lake any of that land, it would not be taken. If, on the other band, Government wished to teach the Maoris a lesson, they might confiscate some. West: Is it likely any of the University Reserve will be opened up ? Major : The surveyors have received orders to.go on surveying it as soon as the weather is favorable. G. W. Gane ; Is the railway likely to be taken by the coast or by the inland route ?

Major: Inland, if possible. Voice ; Take it through the Manutahi Hotel yard. Mr West : Do you think the Government acted fairly by sending unemployed here from other places ? Major ; Yes ; it was the duty of the Government to find them employment. West: Do you think it fair to give them only their food for the woik they do ? Major : Yes. : A large number of men are always on the Government stroke. West : They should be found places (voices : “In the Constabulary ”) in Wellington, or other places where they come from. Why do Government let contracts privately for bush work ? Major : I could not answer that. W. Balmforth : Are you in favor of reducing the beer tax ? Major ; No. Balmforth : Don’t you like a good glass of beer for your dinner ? (Laughter.)

Major: Yes; sometimes. I generally content myself with water. Balmforth : Yon had better put a tax on the water drinkers, too. or ; We have not come so low yetBalmforth : I think they might lake Id a gallon off. Major : There is no likelihood of them doing so. G. Balmforth ; Are pensions knocked off yet ?

Major : Yea, Balmforth : Thank goodness. Mr West : Does the Fencing Act allow Road Boards and County Councils to decide fencing ? Major : Yes. Mr Morgan : Is not the Gaming Act carried too far ? Major :No doubt it is rather stiff. But gambling "is a serious thing, and many young men are ruined by it. G. W. Gane : I suppose that does away with shaking for drinks and Yankee grab ? (Laughter.) : G. Balmforth : Don’t you think it deprives people of social enjoyment ? J Major I don’t think so, \V. Balmforth : Is the totalisator al* lowed ? • '

Major: 'A Resident ‘Magistrate may recommend it, but it lies with the Colonial Secretary to grant it.

A vote? of confidence was then carried, as reported. ■ ‘ ; •—; rrNORMANBT MEETINGThe folloing additional questions (omitted from previous report for want of space) were put to Major Atkinson at the Norinanby meeting . Mr Quin : Referring to the Education Act, did you not state at Manaia that you “had always regretted the injustice done to a large section of the community under the present law ?” Were yon not a member of the Ministry in 1877 ? Major.;-I-.voted for.the, Act, Mr TioWest man 'likF' you would assist,in passing, a law you admit was ah injustice to a large section of the community ? Major : I: voted for Mr Curtis’s Bill. Mr Quin ; When did you first find out. that this Act was a great injustice to a large section of the, community ? Major : Some lime since. Mr Quin ; When you addressed the electors in this hall six months ago, did you then say it would not be altered ? Major : Something of that kind. Mr Quin ; Then your hasty conversion at election limes is to catch a few votes? (Great laughter and cheers.) Major : I don’t expect to catch your vote. Chairman : Any other questions to put? Mr Ingstcr : Yes (in a droll tone. Immense cheering ami stamping of feet.) It seems there has been great expenditure on the roads, and yet ihey are a series of bog-holes. Their management could not have been under proper Government control ? ■ . Major: The management of the roads does not come under my department. That is for the engineers. I cannot be supposed to attend to details of that sort.

I walked over the roads lately, and thought they were very good. Mr Ingster : Yes, you walked over them lately. You have come at a fine time of the year, when everything is dry ; but do you not know that for many months these roads are wholly impassible ? Major; There is ample power under the Public Works Act to deal with the question. I do not know that further precautions could be taken than have been. Yon should not look to a few small holes hero and there, but to the large public works, to account for the money that has been expended. Mr Quin : You stated at Manaia that you were in favor of excluding Opunaki and the Plains from the rating clause. How would you effect this ; would you curtail the security of bondholder ? Major : Not a practical question now. As I have shown, it would not have to be considered for twenty-five years. Mr Quin : If the bondholders’ security would cease, would Government take over the assets and liabilities of the Board ?

Major ; I am opposed to taking them over in this way, as it would establish a bad precedent ; but I would be willing to double the rate on the people of New Plymouth. A Royal Commission might be appointed to adjust matters in the future.

Mr Quin ; Referring to roads ; the road from Hawera to Normanby is like “Ginx’s Baby,” it has no owner. The Government refuses to have anything to do with it; so also with the County Council and Road Board. Would it not be better to spend on this road the £4OO granted for political drill sheds at election time ? (Immense laughter and applause.) Major : Money set apart for drill sheds could not be spent on roads. When the Government gravel roads, the public should take them over, I have no sympathy with people who will not take care of a road after it is made.

Mr Quin : Do you remember about the railway station ? Major : Oh yes, I remember a great deal about the railway. (Laughter.) I remember a meeting of residents in the schoolhouse, they were not very clear about what they were doing. Mr Quin : You were then out in the cold.

Major : I was very warm I assure you. (Renewed laughter.) Mr Quin ; A feeling has got abroad here that some persons are responsible for the ruin of this township, and as all the men who had to do with this are now on that platform, it would be instructing to the people to know who brought that about. Do you remember a letter 'Mr Brett brought to you, and your invitation to me to read it in his presence ? Major : 1 think I do. Mr Quin : Was not that a letter repudiating the previous arrangement made that the station was to be opposite Mr M’Gregor’s Hotel ; and was not that arrangement made by four delegates from the extension and four from Normanby appointed to settle where the station should be placed in the interests of all concerned ?

Major : I do not recollect what was in the letter.

Mr Quin ; Was the letter not written in the name of the people of Normanby when it was impossible to consult the people, from half-past five at night till five in the morning. Major : I do not remember.

Mr Quin : Were you present at a meeting held in the School-house, when the residents voted forty for the station opposite McGregor’s—thirteen on the extension, and three where the station now is ? Major : Yes, I remember that. Mr Quin Why did you not give effect to the expressed wishes of the majority of the people -that the station should be placed opposite McGregor’s ? Major : I recommended its being placed where it now is because of the cost.

Mr Quin : Now, sir, were you not elected to represent us and attend to our interests.

Major : Yes, I believe so. Mr Quin : And is this the way you attend to our interests by going directly against them and ignoring our declared wishes ?

Major ; I did it on account of the cost ? Mr Quin : I am now going to prove to you that you flung away £1,150 of the people’s money by placing the station where it now is. Besides, there is only one swamp at Normanby, and you managed so to place tliei station that this swamp intervenes between it and the town. Mr Brett has already received an award of £SOO. £l5O of that was for land taken ; ihat-would.,have to be .paid in any case, thus leaving £BSO. But there are one and a half acres not yet settled about. In addition to this there is the land for a road round the west and which is now about to be made. Then there are 5,000 yards of stuff required to fill in the raupo swamp, at Is. per yard, equal to £250. The two pieces of land just referred to, valued at £4oo—and no less a sum than other £4oo—will be absorbed in making the roads round the station, including filling-in, gravelling, and fencing. These items make a total of £1,400. If we now deduct the cost of five sections opposite M’Gregor’s for the station, if it had been put there, said sections costing £SO each, there would still remain £1,150 which have been absolutely chucked away. Major: You ought to have given me notice of this two days ago, as not being prepared I cannot combat these figures ; but I have no doubt the}’ are more or less erroneous. (The Major here muttered something about £2OOO which I did not catch, but he evidently meant the buildings.)

Otiier questions having been put, as reported, a motion of confidence was carried, against a few dissentients.