Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. GISBORNE : SATURDAY, AUGUST 25, 1883.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1347, 25 August 1883, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. GISBORNE : SATURDAY, AUGUST 25, 1883.

A considerable amount of discussion took place last Tuesday evening at the Harbor Board meeting re the Common, Shelton claim. Every possible exertion has been made to discover the bogus deed which has been so mysteriously 'whispered about, but without any satisfactory result. Notwithstanding that Councillor Chbisf positively stated on the above occassion that he had “ seen the copy ” of the deed, but that “the original was burnt,” we have not the slightest hesitation in pronouncing the whole affair “ a delusion and a snare.” There can be little doubt in the minds of those members of the Harbor Board who have not got Common, Shelton on the brain —or rather on the pocket —-but what this firm has not the slightest legal claim upon the Board, and it cannot be denied but what they have forfeited all claim to any other consideration by the manner in which they have endeavored to obtain their ends. They have been the cause of much ill-feeling and trouble, through their agents, in the i Council and Harbor Board, who have, to the public injury, sought, by every available means in their power to con- 1

vert these bodies into a CommonShelton committee of ways and means. Surely the greatest sceptic must be convinced ere this. Not content with the assertion made by Government that the firm had no title, and the assurance that they never intended to give them any, our Councillors have ransacked, all the deeds registry offices they can think of to see whether anv instrument really

existed which would justify them in entertaining this claim. As a last resort they have decided upon searching Napier. It may certainly prove satisfactory, but at the same time it will be useless, Would not this hungry firm have brought forward this vital deed lorif ago if it really had any existence ? . But no ; their tactics are now, as they have ever been, mysterious, cunning and underhand. The means and the emissaries they employ are alike condemnatory of their cause. It is now the clear duty of our Harbor Board, after taking all this trouble ard care to ascertain whether there really was the slightest reason to entertain this question, to thorougly ignore the claim, and to at once deal with the question in a summary way as though no agreement or anything else existed —considering their responsibility to the public as of paramouht importance to ail other considerations. There exists one obstacle to this course, but we hope to see this removed by the next election of Councillors, when we trust the ratepayers will show their discrimination and discernment by returning those who have the public weal at heart, and not those sordid sheep who always follow the bell-wether Pelf!