CORRESPONDENCE. LIVELY RATEPAYERS AND OTHERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 210, 12 February 1915, Page 8

CORRESPONDENCE.

LIVELY RATEPAYERS AND OTHERS.

To tlm Editor, iSir, —I sco that ;i "Lively Ratepayer") is having another go at me, but, aa be- j fore, lie has not the manliness to sign his na inn. "Progress' also writes a letter, but he is- also afflicted the same way. 'J lie bone of contention with them all is the Saunders road, so I will try and explain the position from my point of view. Th<' settlers o n the Saunders loud are now paying rates on special leans to tlu: tune of about £2OOO, and it will take another £B<K) to finish it. The rates on this .-CStflO lave 1o be paid by eight settlers. Now it seems to me wrong that we should have to raise all these loans to metal roads foi people living in another county. Mer<! ing with tile, county is not going to sottie this question, as the chief argument in favor of merging is that the ratA will be spent where they are collected, therefore the rates in the Were-kmo district will be spent in that district, and we shall have to keep our own road ■)) repair, although Lively Ratepayer and Co. still use it. Even if their rates were spent on our roads we are still suffering an injustice us while Lively Ratepayer and Co. only help to keep

the road in repair, we still have to pay i off the loan. If Lively Ratepayer thinks that the County Council is going to metal it out of rates, lie is mistaken; also free labor is not done with by merging. Read the report of last meeting of the Taranaki. County Council with regard to a 'petition from Petone road settlers. There is no man who would like to see the Saunders read metalled 11101'e than f would, but. the sett'ers are not going to load themselves with another loan to make a road for Lively Ratepayer, as he must rememb.-r tin l a settler cannot pass it on like some ratepayers can. We will ine<al it when we are ready—not .before. I era pleased to mv hist letter i s of enon-rii public interest to he posted up at the Royal Arms factory. If Lively payer and Co. will come almig to replace some evening, I will find a bottle of whisky, and two such brainy me; 1 as they are, and an old fogey like myself may work out some scheme for the good of the public. Tfc is a pity two such clever men as "lively Ratepayer" and "Progress" should hide Iv'iind :i iiom de plume. Time alone will prove whether merging is progressive or not, anil I sincerely hope it is. If a minis not game to sign his name to r letter, he has no business writing to the paper at all. This correspondence is now elo3ed as far as I am concerned,— I am, etc, W. A. CORBETT, Saunders road, Oka to.