Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. GISBORNE: SATURDAY. APRIL 14, 1883.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1309, 14 April 1883, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. GISBORNE: SATURDAY. APRIL 14, 1883.

Ratepayers in many parts of the Colony often display, in the matter of recording their votes upon subjects of local effect, a large amount of apathy. On the 15th of May next, the ratepayers of Cook County will do well to remember that they will be called Upon to decide at the ballot whether or not this district will receive from the Government the sum of £10,316 allocated to it under the Roads and Bridges Construction Act of last year. Let the ratepayers distinctly bear in mind that the issue is now in their hands. The gentlemen who have been elected to administer and watch over the affairs of the County, have, at the sacrifice of much time and attention, fulfilled all that in their power Uee, under this head. After careful deliberation the works most beneficial, on the grounds of their general utility, have been decided upon. A good deal of the process known as “giving and taking” had to be resorted to, in order to adapt wisely and economically the reduced amount of the original sum asked from the Government, to the amended schedule of public works advertised in another column, to be constructed out of the grant named. That has been done. Against the schedule itself and the imperative urgency of the works required, not a single ratepayer, we feel assured, will raise a murmuring voice. These works must be executed ; if not the County may during the ensuing winter placard our public roads with the notification “No thoroughfare. ” The point to be distinctly borne in mind is that on the 15th May next unless two thirds of the ratepayers, in number and value, of the County record their votes in favor of the special rate, there will be a

dead loss to the Bay of oVet £.10,000, besides leaving the County wrestling with an over, draft of about £l5OO, Thia alone should be sufficient to arouse every ratepayer to an earnest sense of his duty to his fellow settlers on that day. But when we look at the special rate necessary for that amount, what do we find ! Simply that a sum of £257 18s is required to be paid annually for a period of ten years, and in return the district receives immediately for its public works specified £10,316. The special rate necessary as the guarantee for the regular payment of the interest, is the one-eighteenths of a penny in the £1 on the capital value of the property in the County, which is nearly one million five hundred thousand pounds sterling. Practically, we believe, the rate itself wifi never be actually collected, as the lav.' provides that when desirable the interest may bo paid out of the ordinary revenue, but it is absolutely essential that the ratepayers must give their sanction by vote to the amount of the special rate needed to meet the interest, The different polling booths throughout the County are notified elsewhere in this issue ; so that there can be no reoson why the necessary number of votes should not be taken. We commend this matter urgently to the settlers. We think that in different parts of the district that the Chairman of Road Boards, the members of the different local bodies, and leading settlers generally should all work together in this matter, so that no stone be left unturned in getting the voters to the poll on the 15th of May, and that on that day the County may congratulate itself upon being ! £lO,OOO better off than it is to-day,