CORRESPONDENCE.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4418, 1 June 1909, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

(We are not responsible for the opinions ' expressed by ojir correspondents.) * (To the Editor.) i Sir, —As I was passing along the street : a prominent citizen put to me the follow-. >. ing question :—Can you tell me why the Liberal Government spent money on a tea-house, instead of roading the backblocks ? “ Wfll, sir, lam an Irishman and I fully admit that all the Paddy in nie got up and I asked him the question, . if the people of Te Aroha were always f to keep finding fault with the Government for spending money in the placed? The Government have been abused from the platform and in the press, for what P Erecting a building which I maintain has been reilly a Jong felt want, and which has been a real convenience to our visitors, more especially in the holiday time, and I am safe 1 in saying the most popular building in 1 our SaDitorium Ground. Instead ‘of ( doing an injury to the refreshment rooms 1 started, as it was stated it would do, we 1 find more refreshment rooms started.

Unfortunately, for the place, the Government cannot help taking notice of this kind of talk, and must come to the conclusion that the people of Te Aroha do not want them to spend money here. It is with the grea'est diffidence, sir, I refer to a letter from a gentleman who I know has nothing but an intense desire to help Te Aroha, and has boldly spoken out his mind, when in his opinion, he was helping the place, I refer to Captain Montgomery’s letter of March 10th. Injthat letter the Captain (holding an official position, and having information which the ordinary individual has no means of acquiring) informs the public that it was rumoured the Government were looking out for a site whereon to ■ erect a Sanatorium for and kindred diseases. The Captain, with no uncertain sound, totally condemns such an institution, and ihe draws a most pitiful picture of the great wrong it would inflict on our boarding house keepers and general business. It reminds one of Tom Hood’s song of tbo shirt — nothing less, sir, than bankiupt boarding bouse keepers and starving children, The graphic description the Captain draws of the awful consequences such a building would entail, would make the very hardest heart weep for them, and is it any wonder, sir, after readingjthe captain’s letter the Government must come to the conclusion that they would not erect such a building in Te Aroha to either bankrupt onr boarding-house keepers or starve our children The Captain to fully prove his case refers to the Rotorua Sanatorium. Now, sir, if this letter was from an ordinal y man there would bo no notice taken, but from a man, holding the position of Captain Montgomery, who is a leader of the people the Government must notice it. Now, sir, as a matter of fact, Rotorua must have trebbled itself in the list five years, and I know the people < f Te Aroha have been looking forward for many years io the establishment of such /an iustituri n. Instead of injuring the boarding-houses and business people I am sati-fied it would do more to attract visitors fiom a distance, and advertise To Aroha as a (Senator nm than any other form gof Hospital could do. You will come to the conclusion I am against an hospital. lam not, sir, but you must have a reasonable pro’osition to lay befo-e the Hamilton Hospital Committo. who have been years fitting and building up c no of the best equipped and best managed Hospitals in the Cclony, and I am safe in» saying those of us who unfortunately bad occasion to uso it, have no other feeling but thankfulness to Dr. Douglas, the matron, and nurses, for tbo treatment received there. I To weaken that institution in the way it I is proposed to do. is not' in Ihe best interest of the district. I kuow what i am writing will bo very upopular; but still, sir, our proposition is in my opinion a most unfair one under the present circumstances.—l am, etc., John Williams.