NEW ROAD DISTRICTS.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1049, 20 June 1883, Page 2

NEW ROAD DISTRICTS.

TO THE EDITOR, Sin, —I have read with interest the letter of Mr Bridge, which contains Mr Govett’s opinion on the division of road districts, and, with all deference to his opinion and Mr Grovett’s, I beg to differ for two reasons. Firstly, it is contrary to the ordinary sense of the wording of the Act ; and secondly, it. is contrary to the spirit of all Acts of Parliament, that is, to rectify what are acts of injustice, and to prevent, as far as possible, their currence,

' Now, takb clause four (4) of the Road Board Act and, read it as I maintain it is in ordinary English, and therefore the common-sense meaning of it; it says : “The Council of any County shall, by special order, declare that :any part of a road district (or the whole dr any part of two or more, such road districts or any oullying/ distfict or any part thereof, or the whole or any part of two or more such outlying districts, or the whole or any part of any one or more road districts, together with the whole or any part of one or more outlying districts, situated in such county, comprising one continuous area) shall constitute a new road district, &c., to the end of section 4.” Now refer to subsection No. 1— “ That a petition is presented to the "Council"'"setting'forth the boundaries of the proposed new district, signed by twothirds of the ratepayers (for each of the out-lying districts or ; road districts comprised, of portions of which are comprised) in the proposed new road district, praying the Council to constitute such new road district.” Now, sir, I maintain that according to the punctuation of the section and subsection the portions which I have put in parenthesis do not apply to the first part of section 4, but to each other, both being in the plural number, as being parts of two separate road districts or outlying districts ; therefore two-thirds of the ratepayers in the proposed new road district, as being any part of a rood district, is what the Act specifies and requires. The Council did what’was right and strictly in accordance with the spirit of the Act; if otherwise, majorities could and would always crush minorities. What we want is to spend the money raised in the proposed new district according to our wants, not to see it go into the rapacious maw of the Kohi Taniwhas. By inserting this you will oblige —-Yours.,:&c., W. Wilson. Jan. 16.