Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. GISBORNE: THURSDAY, JULY 19, 1888.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1331, 19 July 1883, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. GISBORNE: THURSDAY, JULY 19, 1888.

j The meeting held on Monday night I in Parnell & Boylan’s Hall, resulted I in the utter discomforture of its pro- ' inoters—the busy Land Company J " Sharks.” Now. we approach this i subject purely on public grounds, without the slightest prejudice or bias. If we thought the Land Company i necessary to the progress and welli being of the community at large, then i we would assist and advocate their ; cause by every legitimate means iu [ our power. We have nothing to gain, i nothing to lose either one way or the i other. Having viewed the subject I from this point, we are compeli led to emphatically denounce both i the Company and its Bill as diametrically opposed to those public liberties . and interests which we always shall i mostjealously guard and foster. In fact, j in broad terms, it is our duty to say I that if the present Bill before Par- , liament were allowed to become law ; it would be a standing disgrace to the i intelligence of this district. Who is : it that is advocating the cause of this Company ? No one single disinterea- , ted person has ever been heard to say i a solitary word in its favour. All its ■ supporters here are men who, : utterly regardless of all lairness ami j justice, seek to enrich themselves by | any conceivable means that does not ! pointedly bring them within the reach of the Jaw. Can this be denied ? I Look around and see who they are. , Can it be supposed forone moment that i these men would consider the rights j or prospects of any community or I person whatsoever, if they happened | to clash with their own interests and j longing after gain. 'The manner in I which the above meeting was called j and conducted cannot be characterised as anything but disgraceful. The chief magistrate of the town had no right whatever to use his public posii tiou for the purpose of furthering the interests of private speculators. Let us see how he behaved in this matter. At the request of inter* ested people he convened the meeting, and on taking the chair stated that “the result of this meeting would “ have much to do with the fate of “ the important Bill now before Par- “ liament. The Bill was one of the “greatest importance to this district.” Now, after making this assertion, how did he behave when the result proved adverse to the expectations of the speculative ring, whose interests he wished to further ? Why, he at first flatly refused to telegraph the result to Government, and it was only alter great pressure had been used that he at last consented to wire to Mr. McDonald, who is one of the directors of the <h,mpany. Fully alive to this chicanery, we, in the public interest, circumvented this move by wiring to the Ministry the result of their, the clique's, | oicn meeting. Ln the face of the above I facts, we consider that our Mayor deserves great censure for his behaviour in this matter. How would he have 1

acted had the voice of the meeting gone the other way ? This needs no answer whatever. Another thing in connection with this matter, as showing the means they resort to to obtain their ends, is the garbled and false report of the meeting printed in that feeble and false scrap book the “Herald,” which, in giving the wording of the motion by Mr. Bees-, says “ a petition said to have been signed by one of the inhabitants of Cook County.” Thia is a mistake of the same sort as that which occurred at the last election for a Borough Councillor, when the same.sheet substituted “ Tuesday ” for Monday. Must not the very individuals whom they pander to look down with scorn and comtempt upon such paltry scheming. We ask those hundreds of citizens who were present at the meeting to scan the last paragraph of the so called report, and then say whether they do not think our censures more than deserved, and whether such a print is not a disgrace to the district, and antagonistic to all that is good and true.