CORRESPONDENCE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1209, 24 November 1882, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents].

EXPENDITURE OF PUBLIC MONEY BY THE COUNTY COUNCIL.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Any person directly or indirectly interested in the welfare of the County will, after reading yesterday's leader in the Standard immediately come to the conclusion that there must be some disgraceful waste of public money by the County I Councillors. Now, if the County Council ■ does not try to exonerate themselves from I the black die cast on them, the only conclu- ‘ sion the ratepayers can come to is that they i undoubtedly are guilty. In the leader re- ! ferred to, it states, “ We say distinctly that I under the present regime that public money is I wasted by the Council, or spent in the direcI tion that suits a favored few in the Council, ; upon whom the engineer can always rely for | support in ease of emergency.” It again i states, that some of the members of the County Council endeavor to “ burk ” all l enquiry into the Wairoa-Gisborne road quesI tion. The article referred to also clearly ; states that the works were “ scamped,” and it further states that the County Engineer is convicted on his own testimony, and also the opinion of a duly qualified engineer who also examined the works. Now, sir, the accusation set forth against the County Council in the article referred to, must be either true or I false ; if true, the Council deserve to be brought to justice by the ratepayers, whose money they illegally squander ; and if false, the accuser deserves to be made answerable for the accusations set forth by him. The question is this, arc the Councillors guilty, or are they not guilty. Those accusations I must certainly be cleared up one way or i other, so as to enable the ratepayers to know ' where and how the public money has been ! expended. I would, therefore, suggest that ! the Councillors who reported on the Gisborne- , Wairoa road, as a committee appointed by ! the Council, and whose report was rejected , by the Council who appointed them, to call ■ a meeting of ratepayers to verify their rei port if correct.—lam, &c,, A Ratepayer.