THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1908. UNFAIR TACTICS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9051, 28 March 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1908. UNFAIR TACTICS.

What is evidently a deliberate attempt to mislead the members of the Master-ton A. and P. Association, who, to-day, are called upon to settle the question of the proposed change of Show sites, appeared in the local evening paper yesterday. It is left to be assumed that the general meeting has been called to deal with a question of borrowing in order to acquire the Solway grounds, and the following section of the Agricultural and Pastoral Societies Act, 1885, relating to borrowing is quoted for the purpose of showing how hopeless is the project :■ — .Provided always that the amount to be borrowed for any purpose aforesaid shall not exceed two-thirds of the value at which the freehold property ownei by the Society is assessed for the purpose of the property tax. This is ingenious, but it is not honest, because the proviso which appears in the Act of 1885, has been specially set aside by the Act of 1903. The latter measure, which is entitled "an Act to extend the borrowing powers of Agricultural and Pastoral Societies, says:— Nothwithstanding anything in the principal Act or its amendments, any society now or hereafter incorporated under the principal Act may from time to time borrow money by debentures or by mortgage* of any lands granted to or acquired by the society, and may execute all necessary mortgages or other instruments, etc. The borrowed money may be ap-

plied to any of the following purposes:— (a) The repayment of any present or future debt; (b) the erection of any building or making improvements en any land held by the society; (c) the purchase of land or interest in land required by the society. For purposes of its own the evening paper has ignored the existence of this Act which was passed specifically to give wide borrowing powers to agricultural and pastoral societies, and supersedes the proviso in the Act of 1885.

Having explained so much, in order to expose a cunning attempt to throw dust in the eyes of the members of the Masterton A. and P. Association, and so send them off the track of a simple issue, we may mention that the object of the meeting today has "nothing whatever to do with borrowing. The question to be decided is whether the members of the Association are prepared to sanction the purchase of the 75 acres of the Sol way estate which the com-y mittee recommends should be acquired in the interests of the Association. No Act of Parliament enters into the decision of this matter. A suggestion has been thrown out that the voting should be postponed until after the question of the amalgamation of the Wairarapa P. and A. Society with the Masterton Association is decided at Carterton on the 7th April. It would, we think, be unwise to do so, inasmuch as the Masterton Association has not moved, and is not moving, in the direction of amalgamation. That is a Lower Valley movement. The Masterton Associa • Hon has no desire whatever to interfere with the Carterton Spring Show, and this has been made clear from the outset. The whole position will be fully explained at the meeting this afternoon and the decision must rest entirely with the members who are present..