A MISTAKEN POLICY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 241, 11 April 1912, Page 4

A MISTAKEN POLICY.

At its meeting on Tuesday the Borough Council carried the resolutions penalising St. Aubyn's Town Board in respect to electric light, water and cartage of metal. No dou'bt it feels very pleased with itself, but the time may come, and come sooner than expected, when it will be very sorry that it allowed pique to interfere with its judgment. The town district was badly misled in rejecting the proposal to amalgamate with the borough, and we have no doubt that if the proposal were placed before the burgesses again at would be carried by a two-to-one majority. The attitude of the suburbanites, however, is no justification for the Borough Council inaugurating a policy of vindictiveness and pettiness against its smaller, if misguided, brother. It does not seem to have occurred to Borough Councillors tliat two can play at the game they have initiated. It is against a Scriptural injunction to kick back when you are kicked, but it is human nature. The Town Board may be a small institution compared to the Borough Council, but it has the power to "kick" effectively, and, unless we are mistaken, it will not fail to exercise that power in the near future. It is not for us to suggest how the Town Board can bring the Council to its senses. 'For neighboring local bodies to start figWting is deplorable, and that is why we are sorry the Council has Started it. The Mayor has been doing very good and useful work since he assumed office, but in associating, if not initiating, the present unfortunate business he has committed a very grave mistake. No doubt ho feels very sore over his cherished ideal of a Greater New Plymouth receiving the setback it did, but because the frontal attack failed that is no reason why a flank one should not be attended with success. There is still a way out, and we hope St. Aubyn will take advantage of it. That is to petition the Governor to 'have the area incorporated in the borough. If a majority- of ratepayers thus petition, the district can be merged without even taking a poll. Now that ratepayers have had their eyes opened as to the actual position and seen that there is absolutely no truth in most of the statements circulated on the eve of the poll, they should, if alive to their interests, draft a petition and get it signed and forwarded to the proper quarter, for the longer the merging is delayed the worse it wijl be for°the whole community.

convenience so noticeable us during holiday time. During the past week or two complaints against the backwardness and indifference of the Department in this respect have been frequent and long. When the Main Trunk line was completed the car was taken off the New Ply-niouih-Animoiio section, the reason advanced by tlie Department being that the traffic on the line was insufficient to warrant its continuance, reason is not tenable now, for the passenger traffic has grown enormously, and must now be quite as large'as that in the pre-Muin Trunk days. Even if it is not, the travelling public of these parts hare as much right to consideration in the matter of railway refreshment facilities as those of other places. It is true that there are refreshment rooms at Hawera and Patea, but they do not fill the need like a railway car. For one thing, th# trains do not stop long enough at either place to enable one to partake of refreshments with any degree of comfort. We commend the matter to the favorable consideration of the new Prime Minister and the Minister for Railways, both of whom, we are certain, will not be prevented by officialdom and red-tapeism from doing their duty by the travelling public of these parts. An appeal to the Department itself would be a waste of time, judging by the way in which it has resisted all previous requests for (in improvement in the service so far as this important province is concerned. At Stratford the other night two of th# Cabinet Ministers alluded in glowingterms to the growing expansion of Taranaki, but noticeable as the development has been it would have been even more marked if the railway authorities had only shown more enterprise and a greater readiness to meet the requirements of the public. Every improvement entails, of course, more trouble for the Department. That is perhaps why the raiJj way facilities of Taranaki are very little 1 , if an}', better than they were ten or twenty years ago. It is really time the representatives «f the people in Parliament looked into the matter themselves, and if the new Prime Minister can only bring about an improvement in this desirable direction he will have achieved something that the province (a part of which he represents) will most heartily thank him for.