THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8060, 15 March 1906, Page 2

THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

TO THE EDITOR. Silt, —Your leader of Tuesday, on the local Chamber of Commerce, was read with great interest. There is not the slightest doubt thai the Chamber wants purging of some of its loquacity. There has been too much of the debating society, and not enough of the hard level-headed business about the proceedings. At the last meeting the great bulk of the discussion was taken up by gentlemen, who were candid enough to admit that they were not cognisant of the subjects they were and had been dilating upon. Now, it we want results from the meetings ol the Chamber and to earn and keep the support of the business men of the town, the professional element will need to take a back seat ami give men with practical knowledge of business matters a chance of engaging in the discussions. Oratorical effort is not wanted in the meetings of the Chamber What is, is the grappling and dealing with the subjects coming forward by men practically acquainted with the subjects. IE future meetings are allowed to be run in the manner they have been, it won't be long before the Chamber will be deserted by the business men of the town. With your t .'i'se ]:en ready to help the Chamber we cm, I i'cel, look forward to the reform indicated being brought about—l am, etc., Cosniiiitcii.

BOROUGH v. GOVERNMENT VALUATIONS. TO TIIE EDITOIJ. Sm, —The notices of revaluations very aptly point your recent remarks on this subject. Notwithstanding the depression in trade and the difliculy iu makiug two ends meet now, the Borough valuations are based at as high annual values as they were a year ago, whilst the Government revaluation notices show even increased values iu most cases. I hope there will be n general protest and a lot of objections lodged, iu the case of the Borough I understand that Thursday is the last day for lodging objections, and Ihcy must be in writing and copies lodged with the Magistrate and the Town (Jlerk. —I am, etc., SriiscmuEii. '

"BASELESS CHAKG.ES?" TO THE EDITOR. Sni, —A portion of one of your editorials in this morning's paper on Borough affairs reads as follows " We are quite prepared Id admit that the Council s advisors have been lamentably astray in their estimates." Now, Sir, as one of lliose ' advisors' aud executive officers in designing, estimating, or carrying out some £20,000 of the New Plymouth Borough Council loan works, I must say* that it grieves me deeply to see that au old-estab-lished ami widely read paper like the i.vu.vx.vki Daily News is prepared to 'admit' that au untruth is a truth. Before endeavouring to do so or 'admit' such a sweeping assertion, had you sought those qualified to give facts instead of apparently sucking biased information from street scallywags, you would possibly not have been called upon to make such general 'admissions.' Such broad-cast and baseless charges are calculated to do a great deal more harm to all those who have been connected with the works, than good to the newspaper which makes them, as the way of this world is to believe one false statement against a man rather than ten truths upholding him, and professional reputations amongst average local bodies are hard enough to keep untarnished, without a paper further derogating them with questionable admissious-experto crede. 1. suppose it is an editor's business and privilcdge to sit in his arm-chair with his 'I told you so' criticism, but to prevent the wasps getting on the wing, such criticism should be accurate and fair. It seems to ine that there's au unnecessary amount of goaded gnashing of teeth to-day in New Plymouth, as if she were the first town to spend a little more for her luxuries than the amount originally estimated on rough preliminary data.—l am, etc., L. G. I'. Spexckii, Late Borough Engineer. Inglewood, March H, IiMO. '.As a matter of fact we did not have Hi' Spencer in mind when the article was written, but we may say we have I'.iCTs by us. These, if occasion should arise, will be published. Meantime, street corner gossip finds no credence with us.—Ed. News.]