THE MOA COUNTY.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 August 1915, Page 5

THE MOA COUNTY.

OPPOSITION FROM OMATA, There was a very meagre attendance of ratepayers of the Okato and Omata ridings at the meeting held in the Omata Hall last night, and which had been convened for tho purpose of considering the proposed Moa County. Mr. E. R. Bayley was voted to the cliah-. Mr. McAllum detailed at lengtli the steps that had been taken by a portion of the Moa Road District to merge, and how that petition had been upset by the Supreme Court. Steps had, however, been taken de novo by the ratepayers, who were not satisfied with the work done by the Moa Rourt Board, and who •saw the good work effected on the roads by the County Council plant, and as a result portion of the district had been merged last month and another portion wouid be merged shortly. Members of the Moa Road Board, and, he presumed, others too, decided to endeavor to form a Moa County, and the Bill would shortly come before the Local Bills Committee. Meanwhile the Taranaki ratepayers who opposed it should take all possible steps to counteract the movement. If the Moa County Bill became law it would cripple the whole county. As a simile lie illustrated tho offect, say, of one-third of tho suppliers suddenly leaving a large factory, which had been equipped for their supply. At present the Taranaki County Council had a fair plant, which they would increase if other portions of t,he district were merged. Unity was strength, he emphasised, and if' there were two counties where one was now, neither could possibly do as effective work. It had been stated that if the council could barely maintain 35 miles of main road on a three-farthing rate, what would be the rate if they had the 150 miles of by-road within the Road district to maintain? He pointed out that the 35 miles of main road carried twenty times as much traffic as the bye-roads, and were, moreover, maintained in good order, whereas all tho bye-roads under the Moa Road Board were in anything but satisfactory order; therefore the ratepayers of the district were anxious to merge. Every year, he added, the Moa Koad District ended with a substantia! credit balance. If any local body could show this he-considered that there were only one of two conditions—either the roads perished for want of attention or tho Board was abstracting from the ratepayers more money than was absolutely necessary. It had also been said that the average valuation of the Moa District was higher than any other por,ton. This was not so, as the average value of Moa was .t8 per acre, Mangorei ,€lO 15s, Waitara £l3 Ills, Omata £l7 Ids, and Okato £3 10s. On tho motion of Messrs S. Vickers and F. K. Morris it was unanimously resolved: ''That in the opinion of this meeting of ratepayers of the Omata and Okato Ridings of the Taranaki Comity the passing of the Moa County Bill into linv would prove inimical to flie best in tcrests of the ratepayers of the Taranaki County as a whoie, and we strongly object to the Moa Countv Bill becoming law." SUPPORTED BY MAKETAWA DAIRY COMPANY.

At a meeting of shareholders of th* Maketawa Dairy Company, held last night, it was resolved, afto* considerable discussion, by 16 votes to t>, to nllix the seal of the company to the petition praying that the Mo a County Bill should become law. Mr. Bridgeman was the mover of the resolulion. Mr. J. Brown, chairman of the company, and also of the Taranaki County Council, spoke strongly in opposition to the proposal, and urged that the Moa lioad District should merge into the Taranaki County Council. He gave notice to move that tlio resolution should be rescinded, as it was not right that such an important, question should be decided two shareholders. A full repowof the meeting will appear in tQ-inorro'tf s issue^