MR. WALTER JONES AND THE TAUMARUNUI SEAT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 167, 21 December 1914, Page 7

MR. WALTER JONES AND THE TAUMARUNUI SEAT.

To the Kditor. Sir,—Oil tin' eve of tlx; tlie above had a letter ill your issue of December !)th. While lam personally will, in},' to have a rest after the past two months in answering correspondents, I still crave space for a reply, ami I subi mit the following comparison for Mr. ,Waltcr Jones' consideration:—(l) Can he point out one instance during the three years the candidate he supported voted in committee of the whole, or on any measure submitted to Parliament, against the Reform Government? I know lie cannot; yet, he, forsooth, talks about me being "too devoted a follower of the pariv, whose maladministration has been the cause of conditions he so earnestly yet unsuccessfully strove to remove." It is high time the bubble about Awakino was pricked, also. L Dill not the present member for TaraI. i aki say repeatedly in the House and oil his platform that he eoull not understand why the Liberal ' lovcrnniem, was fpending money in Awakino, wloTe settlers would not bring the ritiiil.y inlo operation, because they wanted to is, cape paying rates? Is it not a fact that tlie Mime of Jones was ass i.-iateii with the retarding of the settlement of the South of Auckland and North Tarannki owing to tlie locking up of 5-!.in)o acres in the Mokau distiret . which 110 ooubt was a factor in stopp'ug the building of the bridge and tin. metalling of the load; anil this sslid Mol'ai'. territory was in the hands of ill". Jo.;hu.i Jones and Mr. Walter Jones for o\er lill years, and comparatively nothing was done in I'm, way of improvement' let me till Mr. Walter Jones that he hail 557 aifses of .Mokau land I'ro.u the Flower syndicate for a period ot .'ld yea' ;, ami for which his rental was the crushing burden of £7 10s per year, an I in wbieh he v-'ii paying until very icceii'ly no .rates. The land taken up in A\v ikiii > county i") years ago was fixed at 7s tid per acre, the greater part of it. Oil this laud, which is mostly freehold, the settlers did not pay Id in rates for over 20 years, and only recently I!he county of Awakino was brought into active operation. .1 know of some portions of the Awakino land taken up at 7s (id per acre for which as much as £lO per acre has Ixeu offered within past few years. Illregard to tlie "terrible sufferings of the womenfolk," well, 1 do not know about that. I have been in Mokau and Awakino a good deal in the past two years. I and at social functions I attended there jwas no outward sign of "terrible suffering" of tlie good and beautiful women jfolk of Mokau and Awakino. Walter 'Jones had better ring oil' that gag, which was effective 14 or more years ago, but a motor service has altered everything. If the local bodies (does he mean, the determined attempt, time after time, to frustrate bringing into active operation the jirovisions ot the Local liodies Act in this district, where his property, at , £7 10s per year for S.">7 acres, is situat. : I'd?) had done their best to assist the Government of the day, by taking full .advantage of the Loans to Local Bodies Act, at cheap rates, with a subsidy of ; £ for ,C on borrowed money for road and metalling purposes, then the condi- ! tion of the settler would have been con- j siderably improved. Hut it' is no use writing of these tilings. Carlvle wrote that there were bread and butter politicians, and 1 often wonder if Mr. Walter Jones is one of them, and when he. accuses you, Mr Kditor, of partisanship, methinks I can see you wink the other ■ eye. Let me just say in conclusion tlmt 1 have been in every corner of the Tauinarunui electorate recently, and where local bodies took advantage of cheap money and subsidies, it is a pleasure to live in those districts, such as the 'King Country, Waimairo, and Kawhia, that metalled roads are in evidence, and the comfort of the women and children enhanced thereby. I say with deep regret that, when I visited a place during my recent campaign, a place not' -0 miles from Xew Plymouth, and which was set. led over fiO years ago, anil where the settlers are well-circumstanceil, I drove for six miles over an unmetallcil road, and when I got to the place, I found no telephone or telegraph communication nearer than two miles away. Js this not backwardness? In districts in Kawhia and other pnrw of Tauniarunui electorate, established about a decade ago, I. found metalled roads and almost every settler's home linked up with telephonic communication. Why is this state of alfairs so general about manv parts of Taranaki? 1 leave it to the massive intellect of Mr. Walter Jones to answer. —I am, etc.. W.\f T. .TBX'MNfiS. Tc Kuiti, December 15, 11)1-1..