THE Pukekohe and Waiuku Times PUBLISHED TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS. FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1913. THE BOROUGH DOMAIN.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 1, Issue 93, 16 May 1913, Page 2

THE Pukekohe and Waiuku Times PUBLISHED TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS. FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1913.

THE BOROUGH DOMAIN.

"ll'e nothing extenuate, nor set down awiht in malice."

To Be Vested hi The King.

We are afraid that all the effort thet has made in explaining the position regarding that portion of the Borough Domain, to be arqiired from Mr J. ostello, haa not produced any smsfacbry if=sul>. Indeed, it appears to have produced no result at all. It will be remembered that after the pc.ll had been tjke-n word was ie.'civtd from Hie Department of L nla that the reserve woulJ have to b.i vested in the Ki p. The "iirr.es" onjccted to this course on tha following grounds 1. That t e Piim3 ftiinuter's origiral pionnisa was that a straightout g'art cf £SOO would be given, v:ith £2SJ £ for £ sub;idy towards the purchase cf the Domain. 2, That upen t'.iii prorrhe a poll of the ratepayers was taken fj acquire the fee simple of the ground. 2. lhat it would be an ill.gal act to pay to the Crown tne sum of £250 tj enable the Crown itself to purchase the reserve. 4. Thit if the lend were vested under the P jblic Keservts ani Domains Act the days u>.on which a charge could ba made for football, cricket aid other athletic shorts wcu'J be limited to ten days in any o: e year, and consequently the would be deprived of a potential source cf future profits which might Le employed to improve a-.d b.autify the grounds. 5. Thai the ratepayers never contemplated giving; <£2so to the Crown, but on the ether hand they had a right to expect tha promised grant and subsidy, totalling £750, trom the State. 0 That the vesting of two isolated parts of the Domain in the iorough, a: d the centre part in the King, would cause considerable confusion both ii control anJ in bookkeeping. 7 lhat the h>!o;gh rattpayers could not reasonably be expected to iind mi.nsy lor buildings and other improvements upon Crown lands, When the Prime Minister was in Auckland recently the Mayor and the Editor of tha "Times" waited upon nim and pointed out the difficul:ies in w-.i'h the borough found it:elf, ar.d spent considerable time i.i preparing an chuo-ate statement of the position so lhat Mr Maasey mwht have the written dccunrnt afterwards to refer to. At that interview Mr Msesey was quite clear on the point that the Council was entitled tj the £SOO grant. He expressed surprise ai the Departmental declaration that t:c lar.d must Le vested in the Ki;g, a::d promised to devise some means whereby the Council cm Id escape from its legal ciUmma. lie deputation waa more than satisfied. But days went by and nothing was done. Then ihe Mayor telegraphed to Mr Massey, saying:— "No woul received yet regardins: f tralght-out grant £SOO and £250 sub-idy pound for pound, f: r I'ukekohc domain. Matter h.coniing increasingly urgent. Vendois still pressing for settlement. Can you please give Council rielinile statement of positi n to day?'' "he nixt iljvejepiycnt was a (el,phone mtssago from Auckland, ;n | which the Departmental oliicers said (here was no way out except by ve-ting the land in the King! 'lbe Mayor !ook the point of view that 8 ma settlement had to be elFected with :lie vendor and, we understand, j replied s lying. "VV>n, j t then' is iu ' way »•■( <>f it, ji'ti h.< ii- • »cs ,ct lli< mall.r lived up aj . '.V tinileiHinnd aid ap Mayor's laudable desj

longer delay a settlement with the vendors, but our opinicn is thst Mr Massey should have been bombarded again with a view to seeing whit he had done in the matter, and whether or net the £SOO was to come to the Council, Aiting upon what Mr Lawrie had said the Department apparently communicated with Mr Massey, for the Prima Minister wired back, saying:

"He Pukekolie Domain and your telegram of 12ih inst.: I dulj brought matt-.r before Commissioner of C:owa Lands in Auckland who now advises me that he hp.s arranged that Pukekohe Borough pay over the required amour t to cnmpkta transfer of area to Uia Majesty tha King as a receation reserve, in actordance with letter from the Under-Secretary of Lands to the Town Cleik on February 25th last, Irust that matter no<v completed satisfactorily.— W. F. Massey."

To fay the least of it, the concluding sentence of Mr Masaey's teleg.am is distressing, and we can only conclude that tha Prime Minister has cevai really given any personal consideration to the queation at all, The matter is nut "completed satisfactorily." To do what Mr Mzssey assumes to be a satis factory settlement is to do the very thing that all tha protest has been about, ar.d it leave 3 the Council and the ratepayers in exactly tte same position as they were months ago. We recognise, of course, that Mr Massey has a vast amount of work to do. Fcr that rea«on we, ss will as others, have abstainad from troubling him upon a number of subjects in which h ; s help would have been very welcome. But because cf tha restraint exercised in tha cases referred to it have been reasonably expected that Mr Massey would have given some personal attention to (he compilation which has arisen in connection with tha Domain.