THE OKATO MERGER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 189, 19 January 1915, Page 6

THE OKATO MERGER.

To tin* Editor, Sir, —I would !ik« to make a Uriel' reply to your report o! the meeting of '.ratepayers re above, particularly an it affects my letter in your columns of tlie 30th .December lust, ill the first place, Mr lirowu would have it' appear that I object to toll-gates. 1 do not :'under the circumstances of the l'uniho gate, for m hen one County has its main outlet through another county, it has a right to contribute, to the upkeep oi tliu roads used, and if they refuse to dg it by means of a subsidy, then the only alternative is a toll-gate. As to tin; by-laws. I said they were pernicious. I still say so. Probably they press nowhere else in the County as heavily as in Okato. 1 agree with Mr Brown that by-laws are required to regulate heavy trallic; but where the shop pinches is the extortionate license fees demanded. Okato residents will tell yon that they are taxed 2s per cord for their firewood on account of the by-laws, and have great didiculty in obtaining it at that, anil every settler has to pay 2s per ton extra for their callage just on account of the by-laws. Toll-gates are bad enough, but I say that the bylaws are ten times worse. You can go through the toll-gate for a nominal sum, but if you once go oil the road with a load of firewood or other substance, you are had up for an extortionate fee. I contend that the by-laws liloek initiative, enterprise, and eoniuefition, yet tlicy arc said to be the salvation of the Okato riding. Another thing with by-laws, you must have someone to enforce them, and that means that a cost of between £5 and £(i a ivcek for an inspector to ride about on a motor-hike, lie cost of administration, Mr Brown says my figures are not correct. I distinctly said in my letter nianagenien'j and olher expenses, 12,!1S per cent. The ligun-i a i taken from the Blue Boo'; :>;• management £]2li2, other expenditure £lOOll, This other expenditure might mean anything from the purchasing of a roacl-rollev to a penny-worth of pins for the ollice. I j did just the same with the other counties —added up both columns for the sake of comparison, and found Taranaki came out on top. With the Okato Road Board, any money not expended on roads is classed as management, con- | seijuently their percentage is the same, whether both columns are added or not. ill- Brown proceeded to show the saving j effected liv the Boards that have inerg- . ed. The cost of the management of the | eleven boards merged were, according to i his figures, .€4,50 12s 2d, and he said that practically all this had been saved |to the ratepayers, lu turning up the l Blue Book for 11)11-12, I find the Taranaki County Council spent £7BO 0s 7d on management. In 1912-13, tliev spent £1202 7s 3d, an increase of £482 fls lod in one year, sufficient to use Mr Brown's own words, "to build a concrete bridge, 'or put 1700 yards of metal on the roads,'' ami still leave £3O odd to spare. MiBrown savs flint it is untrue that by merging the control of the district is taken away and handed to those who have no interest in it, and gives as an instance the metal requirements for the t ensuing year, Okato riding being the only riding granted the full ,amount asked for by the foremen. This does not show any great amount of interest in the riding. It only means that this riding was in a good financial position, and the others were not. I will leave it to your readers to judge whether anyone living in Waital'a, iloa or Mangorei can honestly say they are as much interested in the Okato riding as they are in their own, or as our road board members, for instance. With regard to spending the rates anywhere in the riding, he says it is absurd to refuse assistance to. one set of settlers who are splashing through mud when another road is in credit. Now all the by-roads. in the Okato district (township excepted) have gone in for loans, and the roads are in good order. Does Mr Brown mean that if our roads are good, and some set tiers in Oakitra, Tataraimaka, or Werekino, are splashing through mud because they won't raise a loan to metal their roads, that he will take the Okato rates to assist them? When I say that Okato ratepayers pay £153 in general rates at '/jd and £340 5s in special rates, you will understand how it will affect, them if the County has the control. Mr Brown vigorously defends the County workmen, ife has no need so far as I am concerned. [ make no charge whatever against the County workmen. The foremen, as far as I know, do their | best for their employers. It was the i management I was driving at, the mani agement which put men on the road and I cannot keep them employed, but J do say that the roller is too imicli of its I timo idle on the roadside. Tn conclusion, I wish to state that I am not writing as clerk of the Okato Road Board, nor at the Board's instigation, and as far as losing the. clerkship is concerned, it is open to anyone the Board approves of to-morrow, if .they wish to have it. 1 am simply writing as a ratepayer, and ' as I pay over £2O a year in rates. I j think I am entitled to a hit of a kick, — | I am etc.. | J. WOOLDRTDOE, Okato, Jiimiarv 15, IDIS

SWKATIXti (TIILDKEN. 1 To tlm 1-Mitor. 1 Hir.- Tlui 'f'aranaki Kditcatiou Board . nii't on Wednesday last The repurt of . tlx: meeting was published in your issue nt Thursday. According to that report tlic outrageous conditions under which , the Tataraimaka children and teachers are compelled to carry on school work were altogether too' trivial fur the \ Board's consideration. "Moreover, the 1 ! Tataraimaka representative on the | Uoard was present, but as usual was "as ! usual.'' Let nil' agsiiii state the position. i Sir. The school room, which was built | nearly half a century ago, is :i4ft long and i-lft. wide. Within this space two , teachers and 31) children daily bump one ' another. Fifty children and two teach--1 crs Mien ted daily in this den. Judging by the Board's silence tile members are ' -urelv satisfied with the position. What ! docs'the Health Department think about ! it? The ollieers of this department Mnuv their respective salaries, but what are ihey doing to justify the expenditure when tiiey stand idly look in, I ,' on while children and teachers jjro sardine.! in thii- fashion r 1 challenge any uieinbers of the. Board to point to another school in the Dominion where the ! conditions are at all similar to those under review. Imagine Mr. Robert Masters, the member of" (he Board representing the Stratford district, faced with such a condition of things in any school under his jurisdiction. Tie would pull the Education Board's olhYc down brick liv brick' unless justice was done. Incidentally. Sir. let'me say that the Stratford district is cNtrcmely fortunate in securing the services of Mr. Masters as its representative. The question is whether parents recognise- this fact. However, to return to the Tataraimaka scandal What is the Board going to do about it? Of course the children's parents are only hard-working settlers. Were they living in a town school district and represented by a, live man, the Board would strain its individual and collective nerves to provide a palace wherein to serve up primary education. It will lie idle for the Board to at> j

tempt to shelter itself behind tin- K<l ligation Department. Tt is the Board's plain duty to fight tho Education .Department over this matter, until justice is done the teachers and children. The Department could find somewhere in the region of £BOO to pay for a teachers' Swedish drill picnic at New Plymouth the other day. Furthermore, it is paving tCOO per annum to its "Swedish Chief," Brother Oarlick, plus "bits," plus the salaries of a numerous collection of lesser "Swedish Chiefs" to do the alleged work. "What work, forsooth? Why, inflating the chests, bulging the imis'cles. of the Board's teachers! But it cannot find a few pounds to nrovide pure air and human conditions for fifty coimtrv children, or decent i:»-ing conditions for a teacher and family of seven, all of whom are crowded into a rabbit hutch with four packing ease compartments. What is the Board's going to do about this thing? I hate having to ask this question so often, but am T not justified? Fifty children and two teachers dailv sweated in such a den. Two parents and five children . packed alive into tour fair-sized drapery cases. Does' the Board intend to allow this scandalous cruelty and injustice to be perpetuated? I he summer holidays will be over shortly and these children and teachers be again herded together as in the past. .Hie expenditure of a few pounds on school and house is all that is required to remove what must be conceded is a standing disgrace to the Taranaki Education Board T appeal to the Board to take hold of .this thing. Bare justice demands it.—T am. etc., W. IT HAWKTXS.