SANITATION AT PAPAKURA

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 287, 26 June 1917, Page 1

SANITATION AT PAPAKURA

["To the Editob] Sir—May Ibe permitted to make one or two remarks with reference to the article in your Issue of last Friday on the sanitation scheme recently introduced into this township. 1 have no desire to enter into a discussion on the necessity or otherwise of the scheme instituted by the Board, nor to dilate upon the vexed question of the suitability of the site selected for a depot. The meeting of ratepayers and householders held last week was hastily convened, and the majority of the residents were not aware that the meeting was to be held, otherwise the hall would probably have been crowded, for the dissatisfaction at the action of the Board is not confined, as implied in the sneering re'erence to the thirtyseven persons or "agitators" present at ther meeting, but is general throughout the district. Though not largely attended, many of the gentlemen who were present are old residents who have been closely identified with the progress of the township for many years. Among them were two ex-chairmen of the Board and many ex-members, and all of them have an intimate knowledge of the* needs of the district, and are as anxious and interested in the progress of the town as any of the new arrivals.' It is to be hoped that the Town Board will feel duly grateful to the writer for the highly complimentary manner in which he refers to the members who appear, in his opinion, to be so incomparably superior to their predecessors in office. How long the writer has been acquainted with the district is unknown, but during the last eighteen years so many improvements have been carried out that one wonders how the various Hoards ever managed it, considering the limited revenue at their command.

To write of the "old lethargic ways" as having come to an end is unkind, ungrateful, and an injustice to those who so freely gave their services to their fellow townsmen, and whose labours made it possible for "the improved roading scheme" t) bo carried out.

To climb to the high eminence of a Town Commissioner by running down former membars is bad p >licy and unworthy of a public spirited townsm n.—l am, etc ,

1) W. JONES Papakura, June 23rd | In the foregoing letter Mr Jones introduces the word " agitators," implying that our article carried that meaning in reference to the p-rsois present at the mi e ing. Such was not the case, our simple contention being that the views of a meeting of 37 ratepayers were not necessarily to be taken as indicative of the opinions of the community as a whole. We, in fact, suggested that they were influenced by sentimen al objections and to characterise them as " agitators" was foreign to our thoughts.— Editor.]