The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 1884. THE PUZZLE EXPLAINED.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1146, 1 March 1884, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 1884. THE PUZZLE EXPLAINED.

Although it has not been demanded, we feel that we owe an apology to Mr Gr. S. Cooper, Under-Secretary to the Colonial Secretary, Wellington. In discussing the question ot the proposed Borough of Temuka recently, we disputed the accuracy of a statement in Mr Cooper’s letter to the Chairman of the Committee to the effect that the petition forwarded in opposition to proclaiming the Borough asked to hare Arowhenua eliminated from the proposed Borough. It appears, however, that Mr Cooper was quite right, and that we, were laboring under a raisapprehen sion. We knew that a petition and a counter-petition had gone up to Wellington. Both documc.i.s were very ostentatiously laid on the table at a meeting of the Road Board by Mr Talbot, and the attention of members directed to them by him. He took care, however, that he never hinted at the document that did the real injury. He never made any mention of it, and nobody on the Wallingford side of the railway ever heaid ot it until a few days ago, when he made a boast of having hoodwinked all Temuka. Perhaps before we go any farther it might be as well to explain what this document was. The counter petition got up in opposition to the Borough proved useless. As we have frequently shown before, it was untruthful and illegal fiom beginning to end, and when it reached Wellington it could not betaken into consideration. Finding this bad failed, Mr Talbot started another petition under Clause 26 of the Act, asking to •eliminate the Township of Arowhenua from the proposed Borough. This is the petition that prevented the Borough from being proclaimed, for there were not 250 householders in Temuka after Arowhenua had been eliminated. No one who had any connection with the original proposal heard of this until two or three days ago. When Mr Talbot laid the other documents before the Road Board this petition had been despatched to Wellington, but he took care not to mention it; the whole affair was kept a dead secret, and somehow it never leaked out. The Committee who had been appointed to get the Borough pro* claimed got letter after letter from Wellington intimating that as Arowhenua had been eliminated, the necessary number of householders was not in the area to admit of the town being incorporated. Arowhenua eliminated I No one could understand it. The letters were read and re-read, and the counter petition read and re-read, but no clue could be got to the elimination of Arowhenua, and the Committee had grave doubts as to Mr Cooper’s sanity until Mr Talbot let “ the cat out of the bag.” He is apparently very proud of having counteracted in this underhand way the steps tak< j u by the people ot Temuka to push their town ahead, bat we do not see much in what he has done to raise him in public estimation. At the public meeting held m Temuka be said that, although he was opposed to the Borough he would not oppose it, provided the people desired to have it. Notwithstanding this, he smuggled a resolution through the Road Board, with the assistance of Mr R, A, Barker, in opposition to it shortlv afterwards. This resolution brought from Wellington a letter intimating that the Borough would be proclaimed on the 17th of October, if no opposition were offered to it. The contents of the letter were made known, and Messrs Hobbs and Davis took round the counter petition and got it signed. The counter petition did not prove a success, and Mr Talbot fell back upon the trick which has puzzled everybody, and by that means prevented Teraukafrom being proclaimed a Borough, From the beginning to the end he has been the mainspring of the opposition. Had he not taken action no other man would have moved in the matter, and much annoyance, trouble and expense would have been saved to those who had originally determined upon forming the Borough. And now what good has he done for himself, or anybody else ? He has prevented the incorporation of Temuka under the Municipal Corporations Act only to have it proclaimed under the Town Districts Act, which will do far move harm to the Road Board than originally intended. As a Borough the Road Board would have been relieved of all Arowhenua, Wallingford and Andrewville, as a Town Board only Wallingford is tak<*n, while the greater part of the revenue is lost to the Road Board. Thus Mr Talbot has

lost to the Road Board about £SOO from fees (for. the Board gets it from the County Co«ucil), and the rates of Wallingford, and will have to keep Arowhenua, Andrewville, and the other places, whereas if he had left things as they were the Road Board would have been relieved of Arowhenua, etc. We are told that to keep the creek through Arowhenua clear costs over £SO a year, and this the Road Board will have to keep, besides anything else necessary to be done, Thus Mr Talbot by his extraordinary opposition to Temuka has injured the ratepayers of the Road District, while be has done much good to the ratepayers of the Wallingford, because as soon as a Town Board is formed they will have no rates to pay. It is most extraordinary the amount of mischief one man can make in a small community.