CORRESPONDENCE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1308, 12 April 1883, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinion® expressed by our correspondents], GISBORNE HOTELS. TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—With you and your contemporary’s remarks re the statement given by “own correspondent” to the “Dunedin Morning Herald,” referring to the charges of, and accommodation at, the Gisborne Hotels I quite concur, but "own correspondent’s” statement is so utterly false and unmanly that the diminutive individual is not worthy of notice, and should, therefore, be treated with silent contempt. Possibly he has been accustomed to visit such establishments as he describes elsewhere, and imagines the Gisborne Hotels are similar.—Yours, etc., Gisborne Hotelkeeper.

TO THE RATEPAYERS OF ORMOND. [Per Favor op the editor ok the “ Poverty Bay Standard.”] Gentlemen,—“ If offence should come from truth, better it is that offence should come than that the truth should be concealed.” This quotation is so apt that I cannot resist the temptation of inserting it at the head of this letter. As we are now upon the eve of electing a fresh Board a slight sketch of the doings of the retiring Board will be the means perhaps of arousing the electors to things political, It is not a pleasant task, for there is little to record in their favor, and much that is otherwise, in a career of mistakesand blunders from beginning to end. They commence by spending £2O out of £lOO for plans and specifications which would cost at least from £3OO to £4OO to carry out, a sum of money so hopelessly beyond their reach that the £2O sunk in them is simply thrown away, and would have been much better spent on the road than on useless paper, especially as they could not understand them and did not think it worth their while to try. Incurring this expense was a mistake, but they made it worse bv letting two or three contracts, and then losing the specifications which will have to he re-pluced by fresh ones which will not bind the contractors now at work. What should we think of a man who has sufficient money to build a cottage, who spent a fifth of his money on plans and specifications for a mansion which will cost three times as much money as he is likely to have for years ? Don’t you think he would be a fool? Yet this is equivalent to what they did ! In reference to the loss of the specifications, the Ormond Road Board seem to have a special knack of losing any papers which it is inconvenient to produce, as this is not the first time important papers have been missing when required. I refer to the papers in connection with the sale of the timber on the road some years ago ; any resident in Ormond of three or four years’ duration will know all the circumstances, so I need not rake up old grievances, but merely mention it to prove that these specifications are not the only papers that have lost themselves and got astray, belonging to the Board when they are wan fed; and when Mr Winter wanted them when he inspected the outlet drain, the Secretary informed him that “ they were lost’”—strange, to say the least of it. One of the first, and I think greatest, mistakes the Board made was their choice of Chairman. I consider it an insult to the intelligence of the ratepayers to so utterly disregard the fitness of things as to choose a man so unfls for the position as the following will show. A cheque to a contractor was drawn and signed, and left with the Chairman to give to the man entitled to receive it as he was not present, and this is how he pays him ; in the first place he cashes the cheque, makes out a bill for what the man owes him, and takes the balance with his bill, and tells the man he will receipt the bill if he will accept the balance, which the man refused to do. Now my idea of this is, that it was as near unlawful conversion as it is possible to go without getting into unpleasant places. The next action of this virtuous Chairman which deserves public notice is the drain matter of which I wrote before, and would simply add that the man who passed that work was either a fool or a knave ; he must either be that stupid that he really did not know if the work was done properly or not, or otherwise there must have been some understanding between him and the contractor. In either case it proves him to be totally unfit for Chairman of a Road Board. Now this drain is a very serious matter, for this reason, it drains a country on a dead level for nearly of a mile, and the consequence is that 20 or 30 acres of Mr Berry’s section is under water, which would otherwise be dry, or nearly so. It likewise causes a portion of the road now under construction to be covered with water to the detriment of both road and contractor j in fact I do not think that he will be able to complete his work until the drain is deepened to its original level. I interviewed the Board at its last meeting, and pointed out these matters to them, and likewise read to them Mr Winter’s reply re drain, yet notwithstanding the unmistakable language in Mr Winters letter, the Chairman insisted that the drain was done according to specification and to his but, immediately after informed the Board that he had spoken to the contractor, and that he had promised that if there was anything the matter he would make it yood (these are the Chairman’s own words). And to make a long story short, he sat and brazened out what would have made most men blush for very shame. There is yet one other act of this brilliant Chairman which deserves notice, and I will render unto Cicsar that which is due to him by all means. Our friend wished to get at some firewood, but before he could do so it was necessary to repair a culvert (not on tho road, but across this very identical drain), so he bargained with a man to repair it, and sent another man in his employ to help him, and agreed to give him a load of firewood so much cheaper as payment, and the culvert was repaired accordingly. And this is how he intended to be paid for it: At the next meeting of the Board he proposed that two or three pounds (that is how he put it) should be paid to another man altogether for repairing this culvert, as it was a very necessary work, that no one could get up or down the Valley with a dray until it was done, that it was a public good, and that the man not only deserved to be paid for it, but the thanks of the Board and the public were due to him as well. Now. considering that if anyone deserved anything it was himself, this seems pretty good, and if he could have hoodwinked the Board into passing the “ one or two pounds ” for payment, we can form a pretty good guess into whose pocket it would have gone, and stayed there too. Now, this was ingenious on the part of the Chairman to make a cats-paw of the third party, but scarcely ingenuous enough to hide from the Board that the work had been done by himself and for his convenience, for I can safely say that so far as the public were concerned the culvert would never have been repaired at his expense. Now, does not this appear just a little bit like sharp practice on the part of this immaculate Chairman ? And don’t you think it dest-rves to be rescued from oblivion by being recorded in the columns of your valuable paper ? All the above statements are absolute truth, and can be proved beyond the shadow of a doubt ; and taken altogether I will back them to beat anything on record in the local government line. I will dismiss the subject with tiffs bit of advice to his friends and supporters, that is to hoist the chair and its occupant shoulder

high, and entry Mm to his own fireside, and advise him to live quietly upon the laurels gained in his brief, but brilliant, career as Chairman of a Road Board. So much for the chairman, we will now dismiss him, for I am quite sick of the subject, for it has not been a pleasant one to write about. The only fault I have found with the rest of the Board is the utter want of any sense of responsibility in some, and the almost incredible imbecility of the others, and the outcome of the vnited wisdom of these men will be that the LlOO spent by them in the valley will not be w r ortn 100 shillings to the dwellers up there, in fact simply thrown away) which, considering how hard it was to get the money, and the uncertainty when we shall get any more from the same source, is very sad. Gentlemen and ratepayers, the above has not written for the purpose of abusing the Road Board, but to show you how our affairs have been abused, and as we shall soon be called upon to elect a new board for, three years this time, to draw your attention to the necessity for a change. But a change will not be an easy matter, for our Road Board has descended to such a state as to earn the contempt of men who are only fit for the position. The sort of men wc require are men with some practical knowledge of the work required to do done, and with sufficient self-respect to keep them from anything like the above for very shame’s sake. With a little trouble, I believe five men of the above description might be got to stand providing they saw any chance of being returned without being obliged to have recourse to the pint of beer racket, which is degrading both to candidate and elector, so let us rise, my friends as one man, and besom this filthy stable clean, and then take interest enough in Road Board matters to keep it so ; let us get our rates economically and judiciously spent, and then things will go straight enough, for it is only the apathy on the part of the ratepayers which breech the irresponsibility of the Road Boards, for it is quite natural for men to get careless when not looked after, Road Boards epecially, as their services are gratuitous ana generally thankless. —Yours, etc., George Davis. Ormond Valley, April 9th, 1883.