LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 51, 10 May 1873, Page 2

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

8m, —I have been constrained to send the following letter to the Chairman of the Road Board, and shall feel obliged by your publishing it, as there are no other means of making it public.—Yours, Ac., H. E. Wbbb.

TO THB CHAIBMAN OB THB BOAP BOABD. Sib, —Had I known that so much gravity and importance (to say nothing of the attempt to shift responsibility to me, which it was in the lower, and within the scope of your present Secretary’s duty, to have explained personally) was attached to the letter I received last Saturday, enquiring as to the delay in auditing the accounts of the Board up to the time of my resignation, I should have considered it my duty to reply in a very different way, than in merely informing you'that Mr. Lyanar was cognizant of the circumstances which caused the delay. As, however, your letter, minus my reply, was inserted in the minutes, and has been mblished for public information, I trust I may >e permitted now to enter more fully into particulars which you have a right to be acquainted with, and which I hold the Secretary has been extremely remiss—indeed, I may say untruthful —in withholding. , • Immediately after Mr. Lysnar's election, I inducted him into his new duties, beginning, of course, with the Cash account; and requested him to take charge of the balance I had in hand, so much and no more, right or wrong, until the accounts were audited, the suggestion of the necessity for which, if you remember, came from myself. Mr. Lysnar consented to this at first, and I had written a receipt for the money, when the question of its safe custody was discussed between us ; and we ultimately arranged that I should hold it until the iron safe, which had been ordered, should arrive. It was then found necessary to send the Bank book to Auckland to be made up, which (as it was balanced up to a day anterior to my resignation did not suffice) was returned again to Auckland, and, as I have told you; I did not receive it until the last trip of the Paterson. In the meantime I suggested to Mr. Lysnar that as the end of , the financial year was so near at hand x (the 30th June) it would answer the same end, as well as save Auditors* fees, and be more convenient to me, if the auditing were delayed until he should require the books made up for the general meeting. Mr. Lysnar objected to this; although one of the auditors coincided with my view, and I addressed myself to the work as early as I could. I frequently told Mr. Lysnar of the, impossibility of my attending to it before, and he seemed' to concur in the matter as being of no inconvenience to himself. I have considered these further remarks desirable in the face of my having a cash balance in hand which the Secretary refused to take charge of; ana in consequence of a coloring having been given to the matter not at all warranted by the facts.; — Your obedient servant, H. E. Wbbb.

Sib, —I beg to draw your attention to the approaches to the punt at the big river which are positively disgraceful, especially at low water; why something has not been done before now is a mystery to me; can you tell me who is to blame ? The Road Board I suppose. When I require a load of goods from town, lam quietly told by the man in charge of the punt, that if the dray is not there at high water he cannot cross, as there are so many what he terms holes, that the horse and dray will get bogged; one place in particular he points out to vou in crossing, a place which he calls Captains Porter’s hole; it seems that that gentleman when crossing some little time back all but disappeared, hone and all'; and after floundering about for some time did succeed in getting on to the punt, but at the risk of his .own and hone’s necks. It is positively a miracle that some accident has not happened before this: only a week ago a gentleman on his way to the Wairoa called at my house and asked me if I could lend him some clothes till he could get his own cleaned and dried, which were covered with mud and as for the hone and saddle—-well, we will say nothing about that. Now I should like to know why this sort of thing is allowed to go on, numbers of people are debarred from having a pleasant ride on this side of the river, “ nee from all mud .and dirt.” because they, are told at the punt that the crossing on the other side is dangerous, which is but the truth. Those who have the pluck to venture across, are in such a hurry. They say “ Oh, we can’t stay long, we must get back before the tide goes out, or we shan’t be able to'get on the punt; such hurrying over dinner, such looking at watches, such anxious enquiries as to how the tide is, and so on, that the pleasure of the ride is lost with the anxiety to know if they are to get back safely or not. I would also drew your attention to the working gear of the punt which I must confess is not A.l. When you get in the middle of the river, the punt is brought up all standing; on enquiring what's the matter, you are tmd that the. wire rope, (about the rise of your Itttle finger) which runs through the ring bolts, broke yesterday, and has been tied in a knot, the small boy who assists at the winding is sent to help it through the ring, who after a deal of kicking, tugging, and swearing over it, gets it through at last, and then has to run to the other end and repeat the same process, .this, generally delays the punt from ten to fifteen minutes. Some of these days you w9L hear that the punt was seen last going over the bar, with soand soon board, but has not been heard of rinee. May I be spared from such a fate! Trusting that thio great public grievance will shortly be looked into.—Tours, An, Ottrau. SUB.-