The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 1882.

Temuka Leader, Issue 940, 20 April 1882, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 1882.

The New Zealand Paper Mill Company has no longer any existence, and nothing now remains of it except to pay back the money to the shareholders. When we compare this with the action of the Wellington people, who have formed a company to construct a line of railway between Wellington and Manawatu, the most mountainous part of New Zealand, we cannot help feeling that there must be a race of peopta in this district different altogether from the enterprising inhabitants of the North Island. The cost ot the Wel-lington-Manawatu railway must be a pound to every penny which the. erection of a Paper Mill would cost, and yet we find that more than the required number of shares have been applied for, while the Paper Mill has been allowed to go to the wall. We have not sufficient time to go into the matter properly iii this issue, but we hope to deal more fully with the matter in a future issue. In the meantime, however, we must say that we do not think the reason given, viz., that its failure was owing to a want of enterprise is correct altogether. We think its failure is attributable to the floating of the company having got into the wrong hands, and to the opposition given to it by parties who must be nameless at present. The thing was muddled from beginning to end, and the result is a failure, It is the same way with every enterprise started in this town. The Building Society is very nearly as great a failure not because there is no scope for it, but because it has]been fearfully mismanaged. In making these remarks we wish it to be understood that we do not refer in the remotest degree to the Secretary's duties. We only Bay that it has been managed from the beginning very badly, and that we are afraid it will continue to bo so, We cannot see how it could be otherwise if what we hear is true, and we have good reason to believe that it is. We are positively informed that one of the directors of the society is in the habit of signifying his willingness to borrowers that he will lend them the money at the same rate of interest if they withdraw from the Society altogether. How any man can be guilty of such meanness as to accept the position of director, ferret out the names of those indebted to the Society, and then go and offer them money at the sam3 rate of interest is altogether incomprehensible, and yet we are assured that is true. We know that this is very severe on the other directors, but we will satisfy them by giving them the name of our informant, from whom they will, »o doubt, find out the name of the person who has been guilty of this meanness. The .fact is, we do not know who the directors are, and we have not been informed who the person is who does this action. We cannot, therefore, give any information further than our informant's name, who is ready to prove it at any moment. As we have said we have not the slightest idea who the person is. We have no interest whatsoever to serve except the interest of the public, and our object in making these statements is to try | find out who it is that he might be branded as unfit to be appointed to any public office in future.

The Temuka School Committee met again, last Tuesday evening and transacted business as usual. There was nothing in their actions which calls for criticism, except the disqualification of Mr Harrop, We quite agree with the Committee that Mr Ha rop is not a member. In a former issue we stated that we did not think members of committee could resign, and for%ar of being dec-med inconsistent we may explain that we intended these remarks to refer to the four members who resigned in a bcdy, and not Mr Harrop. We did not take Mr Harrop's position into ; the reckoning, as we thought that his tenure of office had ended with the acceptance by the Committee of hie re-

signation, and we were surprised at the conclusion come to by the Education Board \ in pronouncing him still a member. We quite agree with Mr Jameson's opinion published elsewhere, that Mr Haffop is , not a member of the Committee, and , that it would be necessary to re-elect him before he could take any part in the proceedings, else the business transacted would be invalid. Mr Harrop sent in his resignation to the Committee, and by a resolution of the Committee it was accepted. The acceptance by the Committee of the resignation severed Mr Harrop's connection therewith, because the Committee was the proper authority to accept it. The Committee was then a properly constituted body, and their resolutions were legally effective, and we are confident that their action in this matter Mas legal. We also feel confident that when Messrs Harrop and Bolton have read to this extent they will have jumped to the conclusion as they did on a former occasion that we have been bought over to support what we must call the Ministerial party in the Committer. Now, we have not : at any rate we have not seen the purchase money, and consequently we must express our disapproval ot the Committee's action with regard to Mr Harrop. We think that after all that had occurred the wisest course for the Ministerial party to have adopted was to re-elect Mr Harrop. There had been trouble and bother enough, and the action they have taken now is likely to prolong the agony. Very likely we shall hear next of the Board of Education asserting their right to say that Mr Harrop is still a member of the Committee, and that will result in another conflict; or if Mr Harrop persists in attending the meetings, or in tatting out a mandamus to compel them to allow him to perform the functions fcr which he has been elected, there will ha no end of trouble. We dc not think that Mr Harrop will ever get a mandamus, but even if he should try, it will not be altogether pleasant for the Committee to find the matter going into Court. Verily Mr Davis was right when he said the householders selected a very bad mixture when they elected the present Committee. It is certainly the mixture that makes them bad, for if they worked together there can be no doubt that they would do good work.