COUNTY MATTERS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 83, 21 November 1911, Page 2

COUNTY MATTERS.

(To the Editor “Stratford Post.”) Sir, —I am indeed sorry this controversy re county matters lias become so irkome and so bitter to the minds of some people. After Mr Mnrciiant’s letters 1 do think, in the interests of all concerned, the sooner it is ended or mended the better it will be. Mr Merchant no doubt is quite within his rights in saying good-bye to his constituents and in handing back to them his stewardship at the end of his term. How far he has carried out that stewardship, 1 presume the ratepay-1 ers, and they alone, are the best able to judge. 1 have no personal | quarrel with. Mr Merchant. This I | do know; That no public man is able, or over will be able, to please or satisfy everyone. Therefore 1 don’t purpose to try. However, the remarks I take exception to in his (Mr Marchant’s) letter of your Saturday night’s issue, are those where he makes those indirect, pointed thrusts and gibes at mo, and the other side as he is pleased to call it. May I as, in all fairness, what have I done to merit his displeasure? Briefly, I was asked to contest a seat on the County Council, because a section of the ratepayers deemed it desirable that there should be new blood on the Council. in the event of my not doing so other men were ready I so to do. I believe to the best of my knowledge that I have fought the battle fairly and squarely and in nowise have 1 struck below the belt. As a matter of course it is only reasonable to suppose that Mr Merchant, as a public man, feels his position keenly, and in that respect, lot me say here and now he lias my sympathy What more can 1 say ? if by my vacating the seat on the Council (because i am nowise ambitious) would give him the greater peace of mind and without compromising the people who put me there, i would do so tomorrow—on his behalf. Therefore the remedy now lies in the hands of tiie ratepayers themselves’ (if i have so soon lost their confidence) by petition or otherwise. But i don’t tiiink for one moment, from what i know of the ratepayers themselves, that they are likely to stullify their own actions. As regards the Straker wagon: the present members of the Council tall me, and from what i have seen with my own eyes, that it is an absolute failure for the purpose for which it was obtained in every way, and cannot even be converted into a scarifier or roller. Mind, lam blaming no one: 1 believe it w'as procured unwittingly and with the very best intentions. Personally I believe in a scarifier and road rolled, and that they would be useful and necessary adjuncts for the making and upkeep of our roads, and strange to say the very people who reside on the Pembroke Hoad (so utterly condemned by Mr Merchant) inform the writer that that portion of macadamised road referred

to is the host of any in the Stratford County. In conclusion, 1 court fully the searchlight of public opinion on any future actions of mine, real.sing, as I do, my many shortcomings. I am but commonplace, very human, and it is only human to err. However, I shall try to do my duty conscientiously, and to t(ie host of my ability, and I ask no favour in so do-ing.-—I am, etc., J. SMITH. Stratford, Nov. 20th, 1911.