MEETING AT WAIORONGOMAI.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 74, 1 November 1884, Page 2

MEETING AT WAIORONGOMAI.

Tub meeting to discuss the advisability of forming Waiorongomai into a Town District., adjourned from the previous Saturday, wa* held in the school-house, Waioitingomai, on la-^t Saturday evening. Mr P. Ferguson was again Chairman, and the attendance more than double what were at the previous meeting ; a number of Te Aroha residents were present The Chairman commence! by the assertion that the Te Aroha residents were averse to those at Waiorougomai doing anything for themselves, and next read the leading article in that day's News respecting the advisability of forming the di.-trict as a whole into a borough ; the article referred to, howover, did not rne- 1 with Mr Fergusons approval. He admitted that a Town District could not borrow money same as a Borougli could, and tins he thought was a very good thing, as they did not want to borrow money. The Chairman generally recapitulated the arguments he brought forward on the previous occasion. The meeting having been thrown open for discussion, Mr Denis Murphy contradicted a statement mmh by the Chairman to the effect that Town Districts worked well as a rule elsewhere, and said Cambridge and other Town Districts had appealed to have the Act amended, so that the County Councils would be prevented from Tating them. Further, h& would add, ther,e waB no one present prepared to pay two rates, one to county and one to town district. The speaker stated that but three residents in Waiorongomai had paid any rates at all since they came there, how then could they expect the County Council to come and make first-class roads for them if they paid no rates. Mr Murphy wished to know how the Chairman proposed to raise L4OO from rates, as he stated he could, and thought it would be a great mistake to form a town district, and by so doing give the goldfields revenue to the County and then be rated by them. Mr Mills spoke at some length, clearly showing that the only reason why the Te Aroha people were delaying steps to have the district formed into a Borough was hoping that the Government would do something further to.yards the tramway, and so reduce the liability to be taken over. He could not understand why ..onie persons spoke so bitterly respecting Te Aroha, why there should be any jealousy between the two places, certainly there was no such feeling at the meeting held in TeAro'ia. They ought all combine in the general intere:ts of the gold field and the district generally. Mr MeLiver said he <!id not believe they would raise L5O in rates within the proposed district. Mr Sampson, sen., said he thought a good representative on the Piako County Council would be better for them than a Town District, and later on adopt local self-government. Mr Mills stated on behalf .of the Te Aroha residents that they were ready to go in for a Borough the moment they knew there was nothing to be gained in the form of a subsidy by waiting a little longer. Mr Purdie stated that the liability a borough would have to take over would be L9OOO amount of the debt, not L25,0i)0 to 1/29,000 as stated by the Chairman. When the new battery went up there would be a much larger gold revenue than L75 a month as now. As a Town District the County Council would have not only the power, but the premier power, to levy fates on said district. Several other gentlemen also addressed the meeting. No resolutions were submitted, and the meeting came to an abrupt conclusion with a yote of thanks to the Chairman*