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

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1329, 14 July 1883, Page 2

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

“ Messrs Common, Shelton & Co. were occupying a position that was unfair to other merchants,” was the opinion of Councillor Whinray, as expressed at the last Harbor Board meeting. We quite agree with Mr Whinray, but must go much I further than he did, and say distinctly j that thia firm is occupying a position, not alone unfair to other merchants, but to all the public body of ratepayers, and we call upon our representatives in the Borough Council and Harbor Board to take immediate action in this matter, and at once to place this troublesome firm in its proper position. There should bo no hesitancy in this matter—no doubt. The majority of Councillors were elected to the honorable position they occupy at that Board to truly, and faithfully represent and guard the interests of the ratepayers’, and their duty in this instance is clear and defined. We say “ majority ” because there is a small minority (and it will shortly be smaller still) at the Board that went there, under “ false pretences,” for the sole object of fostering this preposterously unjust claim, and by so doing “ feathering their own nests.” The ratepayers interest is the most remote possible thing they have I in view. They have schemed and I endeavored by all possible means in their power to increase their number, but the want of tact, evidenced in their grasping greed, has entirely defeated their object, and the Common-cum-Shelton element in the Borough Council and Harbor Board is at present at a very low discount. The next election will leave a still smaller portion of that fermentive element to “ work our public bodies.” Its main representative will then be “ a frugal shepherd of the plain,” who, providing he does no harm, always affords the members a grateful opportunity of indulging in “ a draw.” With respect to the Harbor Board grants, the duty of our Councillor’s is plainer still. They have but to take the proper direct course of calling the attention of the Government, in a clear and concise manner, to the fact that private considerations and leanings have, and are still so influencing our representative, as to cause him not alone to neglect, but to diametricolly oppose those public rights and interests, which he has sworn to foster and protect, and there is little doubt as to the result. Why should our honest and true Borough representatives flinch from speaking out fairly and candidly in a just and dutiful cause ? We have heard such expressions as “Oh, give him a little chance and he will do what is right and proper presently.” But we sav this leniency is most culpable. The rinoscerous-skinned clique is impervious to anything like kindness or consideration as they deem anv conciliation whatever, which may be • shown to them as a sign of fear and cowardice—and it really is moral j cowardice. The claim is too prepos-11

teroua for v,a to weary our renders with any further particulars—they are two well-known—and we think it a disgraceful matter, that a private firm should be permitted to so interfere with the businesss of a public body as to cause much ill-feeling, and to greatly retard an important public work thereby injuring the whole district, besides disgracing public morality, The 'ito.it populi imperatively demands that this wrong shall speedily and at once be righted, and we assure and promise our hearty support; to those who, like ourselves, refuse to be bullied, cajoled, muzzled or intimidated into any servile complin, ee to those who have any ulterior ob eets in view, other than public welfare.