CORRESPONDENCE,

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 143, 27 February 1886, Page 7

CORRESPONDENCE,

Under no circuinstitici' is the Kditor ies possible for the nmitur cuutaiiiL-d in corresponudnce.

(TO TflE EDITOR.) Sue, — In your paper of the Gtli inst I j see my letter ami your comments there j on. You challenge my statement of i the fact tha 1 -. the yearly rent of land in I the townships of \.roha and Waiorongomai is £25 per acre. The yearly rent is £5 per lot r>f one- fifth of an acre, as many persons, myself "amongst thein^ know to their cost. Need -I inform you that five times five make twenty-five? From the want of a freeholder good copyhold I enure on fai r ! terms, I regret that the progress of i these towns is not more tuai'Ked, and tuat thp only not.iblc f improvement nieiitio ted by y< u'r Englith friend sliould co tsist in spending £1000 of Government borrowed money on the Domain I and baths. I may> however, inform you that when our worthy member, Mr J. j B. Whyte, and I were at Aroha to meet j Sir John Hall, the Premier^ I suggested that instead of letting the springs and Domain it would be better to appoint a committee of management, and obtain a grant of money from the Government. This suggestion was given effect to. My interest in the welfare of this district is Hot recent as you insinuate ; both when I represented a Southern constituency and since, I have endeavoured to aid its progress and prosperity and, now that I am leaving the colony 1 scarcely deserve your imputation of selfish motives in trying to point out what i 3 doubtless a great injury to piogress, and wishing if I <an, by suggesting a remedy, to do soniv. good to those amongpt whom I have dwelt so long. Your insinuation that lam angling for this constituency ia quite out of place, l^t. I have no inteivta&u of opposnig my friend Mr Whyte, * whose

views arc usually in accord with mine. 2nd. After serving almita dozen years in Parliament I am not now enthusiastic aher Parliamentary honouis, nor •under existing circumstances, an<l in the complications of Government could I hope to do such public service as would justify the personal disadvantage which my. rema\ ning here at present al present would involve. — I am, yours truly, Wm. Aucn. Murray. Piako, Feb. 10th, 18S6. With respect to Mr W. A. Murray's assertion, now repeated, that the rental of allotments in the Aroha and Waiorongomai township is £25 per acre, i.e., £5 per annum for one-fifth of an acre. Mr Murray has evidently made up his mind on the subject, and we have, no desire to argue the point. Certainly hi? visits to Te Aroha have been so veiy few and far between during the past few years that it is perhaps not to be wondered at if he should be in ignorance as to the size of allotments. This remark should not, however, apply to Waiorongomai, where quite a number of town allotments are held by the Messrs Murray ; to whom no doubt a reduction of rent would prove very advantageous, and if we mistake not Mr W. A. Murray also hold's over 100 acres of the Thames High School Endowment lands adjoining Waiorongomai township, now sublet by him, and we have no doubt Mr Murray would be very glad io purchase on the easy terms suggested in his letter published in our issue of the 6th hist. In that letter Mr Murray asks " Are the people content to be the sport of theories^ to support politicians whose stock-in- trade is to prate about liberal land laws,, and posture as public benefactors, while hypocritically they care only to serve their own selfish ends, gratify their personal ambition, and indulge in egotistical verbosity?" For the information of our renders generally we may state that residence sites in both Waiorongomai and To Aroha are onequarter of an acre each moro or less (tluit being the standard laid down for the surveyor to go by), and the rental £1 per annum. With respect to business sites at Wniorongomai) they vary Irom about one-ninth to one-quarter of an acre (those first laid off being the the latter size) the rental being £5 per annum for all such sites used for business purposes, but in response to a petition forwarded through Warden Keniick to the High School Board of Governors about a year ago, the rental of those business sites used for residential purposes only has since been reduced to£l per annum. In Te Aroha all business sites average oneeighth of an acre — some are slightly more or less, that being the size at me 1 at when they were laid off and the rental £5 per annu'n, i.e., L4O per acre. These statements'cart be verified by refereftce to the Government maps, or by enquiry at the Warden's Office, and we never heard of any of the allotments being one- fifth of an acre until mentioned by Mr Murray. Having said so much we do not desire to pursue the subject any further. We certainly wonder at the Messrs Mm ray taking Up and holding so much land on terms they consider so unjust, and also that Mr W. A. Murray should have put off coming to the rescue till just, as he states, about to leave the colony. Mr Murray says that in our remarks on his previous lotter * - we insinuated that he was angling for this constituency" — perhnps so, anyhow it" tne cap fits we cannot apparently prevent Mr Mm ray from assuming it, .though we siioill.l ha\e tuou^ht ho would not so soon have forgotten ti.e number of vote 3 recorded in his favour at the late election of a councillor to represent this riding, on which occa-ion l.c preferred lin ?ei vices to represent Te Aroha. in Mr Muifiiy's first letter reference is ma le to tlu j dismal appear.'mci' of Te A.oha ; v\e aro happy to inform him those residents here do not coinci-itJ with the above expressed opinion l>y any means, but on the contrary consider its piospocts most enconraging. — Ed. A N.]