CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81899, 4 December 1906, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

LOAN PROPOSALS. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Your full report of iu<; citizens' meeting called by Hi> W'j.uhip : tlio Mayor to consider the loan proposals to be (submitted to the ratepayers oil Friday next indicated that you ar e desirous that all the fact;i should be put before the public, so that they might vote intelligently un the above proposal. You would be studying the best interests of the borough by giving a summary of the figures put before the meeting by Mr Brooking, showing the difference between the amount voted originally for ,Slcctric light and the actual cost to date, also the earning power that would be given to the wiiole scheme by the further additional expending of £SOOO as proposed.—l am, etc., RATEPAYERS (We will be pleased to do so in our next issue.—Ed. D.N.)

AFTER THE SHOW.. To the Editor. Sir,—Kindly allow me to add a brief supplement to your article unaei the above heading. As you told ui in a previous issue, there was posted , by older of tlie licensing authorities, at tlie publican's bootn a notice 10 the elfcct- that no Maoris ttould be supplied wiih liquor. Had tfte notke been there 6,mply as an expression of the determination of the licensee, or of the Licensed Viduaik*is' Association, it would nave bi:en a highly praiseworthy action, and moreover, tney would nave been quite urtiiiu tiieir rights m doing so; buj when put up "by authority" it takes a utffereut a pect. As it was it showed thai the committee was of tne opinion ihat the granting of a conditional license was a possible source of «ouble: in this tney were ww» as a result of experience. Now wnat strikes an independent public as be : ug sJtrang-e and very weak abouttue matter is tliut the committee iu not have the courage of tneir evident opinions and refuse any conditional license altogether. Tuere are many other reasons why they sliuld have -e----lused, and it would not even then nave been the first agricultural .-liow 111 New Zealand succesfully carried out without a publican's booth.—l am, etc., GEO. H. MAUNDER.

SWIMMING. To the Editor. Sir.—l nuticed your paragraph in this morning s paper re swimming. l°u make s„me .suggestions tor improving tiie accommodation at the Bath.;, and you wind up by asking the authorities to subsidise a subscription from the swimmers. As an old time swimmer and one who lakes a keen imcest in swimming, I have always watched the Council and the swimmens themselves ami have caiefulty noted their actions. une thing- I noticed quite recently was that the swimmers got up a swimming gala, the proceeds of whicu was to go to tile Western Park. Have our swimmers so much money in hand that they cannot find an outlot for it in furthering the interests of sw'imming ? Or is the Western Park of more interest to them than the Ba:hs ? Quite Kceiitly wiien a request was made >o 'he Borough Council for the insta:ation of the eleeiric light a councillor iel used to sanction it on account of the baths not being a paying concern. I'iom a financia. point of view, Mr Editor, there are very few baths that do pay. But their value to the publ\ lie is almost inestimab.e. I think there is a lack of interest in the Baths and swimming generally which amounti to neglect. Until the temperature of tlie water can be contro.ed and the Baths made brighter, cheerful and inviting swimming vvi.l not make the headway it should. Christchurch is having- new covered id tepid water baths erected. Why not New Plymouth? Cannot we do more to make the baths attractive and remunerative? 1 am, etc., SWIMMER. |