The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 1883. THE PROPOSED BOROUGH OF TEMUKA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1135, 16 August 1883, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 1883. THE PROPOSED BOROUGH OF TEMUKA.

[t would apjear from Mr Calbot's letter pub'ished in our la*t is;»ue that he expected Bt;vre criticism of his action in opposing the proposed Borough, and that he was more or less surprised at finding he ha I handled so j,e.; -v. Why dM. Mr Talbot expect to be criticised ? Was it because h« knew he was guilty of having gone beyond the limits of prudence and good ta«te in o, posing the will of fie jvople ? Many will no doubt thinks so. We did let 'Mr Talbot off as mildly as we cruld. lie is a gentleman with whom no one can come in contact without feeling a sincere regard f r him ; he has m ny estimab'e qualities which endear him to his fellow men ;he is a thoroughly upryht public man ami an excellent citizen, and when we tf.ok all this into con»Meration, we felt vry mueh pained at having to criticise his conduct at all. ft was no labor of love—it was a matter for de'-p regret to us—-it was cue of those disagreeable duties whieh hav.' to be performed som"times in journalism and which cannot be avoided . Private fri"iidship must a'wa<s bo set asi e by journalists when the public interest is at

Make. Mr Talbot lays great stress on tie duty he owes as a nvmher of the Road lioitnl t«> the ratepayers ; we aVo recognise that we owe a duty to the public, and that it wonH not b« right tor us to shrink fr< m performing it, Mr Talbot is all-poweiful on the Road Boarl, where we have no voi.e ; our columns nrft open to him to give his views the same pub'icity as we giv»» our own. In tliis respect he has the adv:i»«tage and has no reason to complain. Mr Talbot considers that we did not f»ut things in th'ir true light. If we have failed in that respect, he certainly has not succeeded in showing that he is right. lie refers to ihe duty of the l»oad Board to watch over the interests of the ratepayers. Is Mr 'lalbot'the R.ad Bnard V Did not the m j >rity even there decline to assist him ? D.'cs Mr Talhot in-i-*t on making it Appear that the Uoal B>arl olj't'ted, wl en he had to mrdify his views to the extent of saying that the B-ianl did not wish t<» oppose the Borough to g«-t even one memb-r to support him. An I after hiving; been driven to such straits he. obj cts to be accused of working sinal* handed. To show that he may possibly have many sympathisers he points ',ut that while the number of resident*; sufficient to constitute a borough is 25i>, only 130 have signed the petition, and from this h • concludes that the other 120 eiilvr do not exist, or havo refuseJ to sign. Both conclusions are abso'utely erroneous. A declaration has been mado that thee are 250 householders within the proposed borough, and if Mr Talbot does not know that he surely ought to after having taken such an interest in Ihe matter. T<e Act of Pa-lnm-nt only requires 100 hoiiaelmlJers to'sign the peti tion, and if Mr Talbot does not know that also he ought to know it. The fact is the carrying round of the petition was placer! m the bands of persons who have never ve.t kil'ed them--elves with hard woik. and when they got 130 signatures—that is 30 more than necessary—they got tir«d, and contented themselves with that number Weave positively assure 1 that was scarcely a householder declined to sign it. Knowing thes*} facts, and seeing thst only one member of the Board supported Mr Talbot we do not think we were far wrong in saying that he was working ' almost tmiglehanded.' If Mr Talb.«t thinks it is wise and prn ent in him to act in such an autorr.<tii; manner as to try to thwart a united people in their desire to push their town ahead we certainly cannot agree with him. Unless he feels confident that he holds a monopoly of all the wisdom in the district, he might as well hive given the nutter ' best' when he fuuml himself alone in the batte. As regards tbe bridge, Mr Talbot knows well that its maintenance by th» j Borough is out of the question. He j knows that such a thing is utterly im I possible, and that if such conditions

were impose 1 the people of Temuka

wuu'il n-»t accept them. We heartily appmve of a B trough, but if it weru saddled with the bridge we should most undoubtedly oppose it. In the most of novels and plays there, an villains who possess somebody's secret, and when they want their wishes complied with they threaten to divulge. Mr Talbot wmts to use the lui ige in a somewhat a'milar manner. He knows he hasonlf t > say ' you must maintain the biitljr* * to put an end to tha Borough. If Mi T» bit thinks that the few acres contained in the Borough should maintain a bridge which the whole road distric thinks too heavy a buid-'n, and asked thCfunty Council to take oyer, we cer tainly say his sense of justice need;culivation. The duty the Borough rat-payer? owe to country is to keep the streets in a way that the> can pass through then with saf-1; wh'-n they come to town, and countn ratepayers ought to reciprocate by keep ing roads outside the Borough r<pnircd f>r the use of townspeople whei they rt-quire th>m. To ask the Borou<?l to keep in repair roads and bridge,:beyond its boundaries is analogous even though remotely, to a man to dinner and tell him to bring his owi eat.-.biea with him. Mr Talbot says h> feelings are decidedly against tin Bur ut>h, and from that we infer tha he is actuated more by a determinatioi to prevent the Borough being constituted than by a desire to relieve conntn ratepayers of the maintenance of th--bridge. He knows very well that tbtown could never maintain the bridge, and, as lie cannot prevent it in an.* other way, he is tiying to stifle it with this responsibility. He accuses us of having said he had no right to point out that ' non ratepa/eis had signed the petition.' W* never Bail any pucli thins?. We di' not dispute his right, but we qur-s----tioncd Ids wisdom in doing so; in fact wt only reproduced Mr Qninn's word-*, who said it was ridiculous and wouht make the Board a laughing-stock, a.he petition wa< required by law to bt by householders and not by rate payers. To say that Mr Talbot wa.wrong did not amount to denying him th»« right to go wronj if he thought fit. We should be very sorry to say th t Mr Talbot had no right to do anything he liked, but if he were to talk forever he couU not persuade anyone that 'nonratepayers ' ought not to have signe I th» petition. That point is not worth discussing. MrTalbit evidently doe* not altogether li.ie thecredit that, we gave Quinn for having stood out foi the people, on the gro.m 1 that Mr Qiinn ony did what he (Mr Talb.it) did, that h, what he thoughc wan right. That is all very w;Il, but Mr Qninn's ideaa of what wa» right happened to coincide with ours, while Mr Talbtt'e were exactly opposite. That is th<reason why Mr Talbot was critics id and Mr Qtinn praised. Mr Talbot could n>t expect us to praise him when we thought ha was wrong. It happened also that Mr Qninn's ideas agreed with tdose ut almost every man of property i«. the tow iof Temuka. He has large interests in the town and country ; he is likely to be considerably affected by the BiTough, because it will increase hi* license fee, and yet hu is enthusiastic in th« matter. The fact that Mr Quinn and the other hotelkeepers in J'emuka who will have to piy a special tax in the shape of increased license fees, are (1 -sirous of having the tovn candidal'■ a borough as well as all property owners, ought to have convinced Mr Talbot tb at the people are in earnest ; n the matter, and that it would be as good to let them have their own way. The people's Toice is a sacr d thing,

. . . *'J is strceerthan a king. And Mr Talbot will find it out. Mr falbol's insinuation about creating billets might as well bare been where he keeps his private rea.sons for •icti'ig as he ban done. To say that the promoters bad no higher aim than to create bill, ts is paying them a compliment that dops not come well from Mr Talbot. As to the assertion that Tenrika is only a rural villige, we have to say that if Mr Talbot's advice were taLen it would remain so. But the people are determined to make it—what it outfit to be considering its nurround tags—a thriving town, and for that purpose they have resolved upon having a borough. Thpy think that the bringing together of ten of their chosen citizens in the Council will unite p-ople, foster public opinion, and create an interest in local affairs now unknown, and that to upend the £4O), vhich goes to the County Council yearly, the Ourt fees, and the rut*s, in improving the town will add to its attractiveness and offer inducements to

otliOis to c»rae. to live in it. But we have so frequently dixcussed the advantages of a borough l>«f ire, that there is no necessity to refer at liny greater length to it. Mr Talbot says lie would cease to be of any use in a jmbh'c capacity were he to hide his con viol ions. Tnere is another occasion when he would cease to he of any use in a public capacity, an! that is when his convictions are not in pccord with the majority f the peojde. What gives a man a public position is that Ins views agree with those of the majority, and when he forsakes views he i\ no longer useful, because thepeop'e wi.| not elect lim. It would be as wed for Mr Talbot to realise that to fight singly asjaiust a united e immunity, will not be looked upon genera ly as the b-«t way ro make himself useful as a public man. When most public men find the majority agaiiist * them tlcy submit, ami it Mr Talbot did that he would in-v-r i-e reproached with ne-'leoting his duty. Udt we shall not set our.»elv>'B down as »[r lalbot's mentor, although he would f'uin be the mentor of th« whole com iinnity. We shall leave it lo his own ,'«>od taste, and we feel sure that on eflecti-in he will cea-»e to be obstructive. In our article, lnwever, we stated that ippar ntly the Road B >ard was desirous •f spen Hng all the money before t'ie i{<ir»ugli came into exigence, and no Kitice was taken of this. It is as well lot to forget this.