THE TARIKI ROAD LOAN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8075, 3 April 1906, Page 2

THE TARIKI ROAD LOAN.

THE SPECIAL HATE. This year the . Tarauaki County Council has collected £l7 lis 3d,interest on the Taviki road loau, this being the first amount paid by settlers for seventeen years. As a matter of course, the settlers want to knoiv why they arc asked to pay now, many of them being, they say, ignorant that their properties were liable for the rate.

The following letter was sent to the Treasury, and rc-addresscd by that Department to the Couuty Council, asking for information : "Tho Taranaki County Council is this year charging certain ratepayers with a Tariki road special rate. It appears that the rate is levied in connection with a loan raised about twenty yoars ago, which should in the ordinary oourso have been repaid within fifteen years from the time the money was obtained. The charge has not been made during the last seventeen years, and now (to tho astonishment of settlers who have taken up land without any knowledge of the rate) they arc asked to pay in respect of a loan which should have been discharged several years ago. Tho position is most unfair to theui, and they arc to-day being saddled with liabilities which should havo been cleared by their predecessors. It is alleged' that the authority to charge the rale comes from tfyo Treasury, and, on their behalf, I respectfully ask that you will inform me under what authority tho Council is making the levy, The settlers do not mind paying their just [debts, but naturally object to pay what tho Council has neglected to collect from others. Another objection is that the rate is charged to a few settlers only, some of whom are much further from tho Tariki road than others who are not charged."