The Telephone. WITH WHICH INCORPORATED THE POVERTY BAY STANDARD. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 279, 6 November 1884, Page 2

The Telephone. WITH WHICH INCORPORATED THE POVERTY BAY STANDARD. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6.

During the delivery of Mr. Hurrey’s in teresting and carefully prepared address on Tuesday evening last at Makaraka to the electors of the Gisborne Riding, that gentleman raised a doubt as to the action of the retiring Council in expending the grants made by the Government under the Roads and Bridges Construction Act. Mr. Hurrey said “ He had yet to learn, with the ratepayers, whether the County Council had hypothecated any portion of the Z’7,600 for purposes other than was intended.” There is an unpleasant ring about such a statement. By implication, Mr. Hurrey would have it understood that a portion of the grants have been diverted from the original purpose for which they were obtained. That, in point of fact the money raised for certain specified works, on the approval of the ratepayers, and by whose sanction a special rate had been levied to pay the interest of such money, had been improperly applied by the Cook County Council. This is a serious accusation to make, even by innuendo, against any public body. Whatever laches the Council has committed no such imputation as that laid to their charge by Mr. Hurrey, can be sustained. Where the credit of the district is at stake the faintest suspicion of anything dishonorable on the part of its representatives must be immediately cleared away. We therefore state at once that no possible grounds exist for the assumption that any money, granted by the Government, under the Roads and Bridges’ Construction Act, has been applied to any purpose other than originally in-

tended. On the contrary the Council, unwisely we believe, have refrained from expending the sum of X*7,600 mentioned by Mr. Hurrey. Until the last payment made for work done on the Ormond and Waimata road, every item of expenditure had, before being sanctioned for payment, to be submitted to Mr. Barnard, of the Survey Department, the Officer duly appointed by the Government under the Roads and Bridges Construction Act, to see that the works were carried out in accordance with the terms upon which the grants were made. The first payment of X*Boo for the work on the Ormond road passed through his hands. Recently a change has been made. For the convenience of persons taking contracts from the Council, Mr. C. Y. O’Connor the Under Secretary for Public Works, intimated to the Council that on the certificate of the County Engineer, anticipated progress payments would be made to the Council a month before comin# due, so that persons would not be kept unnecessarily long out of their money when the work was finally passed. In this way a sum of X'1,200 has been expended on the Gisborne-Tolago Bay and Waimata roads. Apart from all this, the Legislature has hedged round the expenditure of money so obtained with the greatest safeguards, so that misappropriation could only be effected by the most barefaced fraud on the part of the officers and members of the Council. But even assuming that such an extremely improbable contingency did arise, the law can be easily brought to the rescue of the ratepayers’ themselves. It is distinctly and emphatically laid down in the Roads and Bridges Construction Act of 1882, that “If any local body which has obtained money under the Act for the construction of a road or river work applies or suffers such money or any part thereof to be applied to any other purpose, or applies or suffers to be applied any moneys received in respect of a special rate otherwise than in payment of the debentures in respect of which such special rate was levied, except when such debentures are fully paid, all such moneys so improperly applied shall be deemed to be a debt jointly and severally due to the Crown from each and all of the members of the local body who consented to such improper application, and may be recovered from such members, or any one or more of them, in any Coui;t of competent jurisdiction in accordance with the provisions of “The Crown Suits Act, iBBf-”.; without prejudice, nevertheless, to all other rights and remedies under this Act for the payment of the debentures given by such local body in accordance with this Act.” In view of the general election of County Councillors now going, on the present is an excellent opportunity for having the doub,s raised, cither verified or set at rest. If by any possibility, it can be shewn that not only moneys granted under the Roads and Bridges Construction Act, but any revenue whatsoever belonging to the County, is being wrongfully applied, or applied to improper purposes, the man who lets in upon such a condition of things, the broad light of day, is doing his duty to the district and deserves the thanks of the community.