THE OMATA RIDING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 193, 5 August 1908, Page 4

THE OMATA RIDING.

A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF.

In speaking on Monday at the County 1 Council meeting to his motion having i for its object the subdivision of the : Omatu riding, Mr. A. George stated that i his idea was to make two ridings. The first, which would retain the name of • the Omata riding, would embrace the Barrett, Omata, Hurford, and portion of the Oakura road districts north of the Oakura river; and the other, to be called the Oka to riding, would comprise the remainder of the present riding fr)\a the Oakura river to the southern boundary. His idea was that as the valuations of these two districts and the proposed new (llurworth) riding went nearly the same, each could have one member on the Council, and thus the representation would be fair. It was possible now for the riding lo be represented by two members living quite at one end of the district and thus interested most in that portion. He gave the valuations llurworth £205,000, Omata £2B-1,1101), Okato £250,000 odd. "y adopting his proposal he considered the Council would best cope with the dissatisfaction of the suburban ratepayers, who were discussing the formation of a town district or .some other means of obtaining local control and relief from the heavy burden they had lo bear as ratepayers in the. county in comparison with the short length of county road | which was of use to them. The disparity in the valuations would be move than* met by the facts that the new Omata riding would have to curry the greater amount of traffic, and that il would have to pay more for its roadmetal than the Okato end. Cr. Ilopson, looking at the legal asi pect, doubted whether the Council could i constitute a new riding without a rats- - payers' petition. There was no seconder, i Cr. Andrews stated his opposition to the proposal was based on the injustice of it. Cr. George was going to give one ' riding—and the one lower in valuation —thirteen or fourteen miles of mam road to maintain and the other only

about nine. The. Okato riding, too, would have a larger number of bridg-s to maintain. As for the traffic, he opined that the traffic that was calculated to damage the roads most came from the Egmont county, and would traverse the roads of both ridings. Councillor Hill referred to the dissension amongst the Omata riding members. Tt had been stated by one of the Omata riding representatives that other councillors interfered too much in the affairs of that riding. They could not agree amongst themselves, it seemed, so somebody had to arrive at some sort of a decision. The motion lapsed.