THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1910. A LAST WORD.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10088, 8 September 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1910. A LAST WORD.

The ratepayers of Masterton have an important, an almost sacred duty to perform to-day. They have to decide for themselves, airl i.r the community as a whole, vhether the sanitary condition of ttie tow.-, upon which the very lives cf the inhabitants depends, shall remai.i in a satisfactory or an unsatisfactory condition. The Legislature, ?n its wisdom, has decreed that only the actual payers of rates shall \otc upon questions involving the losing of money by way of loan. A I.vge number of residents, who pay tno rates by way of rent, lui/e no voice . in determining whether t-o -'ital a pz'oposal as that affecting the health of the community shall bn accepted or rejected. The responsibility retting upon those who dirajViy pay the rates is, therefore, the :mre serious. In exercising th.s'r privilege, ratepayers should take a mere ext<?i)ded view of the case than tL&t of mere pounds, shilliugs ani pence. They should remember, that they pre. in fact, the guar liup 3 d ihe health of every man, woman and child in the community. The question they are asked to determine in whether the sanitary condition of the town is what it should be. If they are satisfied that it is, then they would be foolish to record their votes for an undertaking which is obviously not required. If, on the other hand, they agree with the Health Department and with the Borough Council as a body that the extension of the drainage and the improvement of that already provided jg a matter of extreme ur-1

geney, they will most assuredly record their votes in favour of the proposal submitted. It is absurd to suggest that the best interests of the town would be served by adopting a modified scheme. An almost irreparable mistake was made years ago, when the drainage system was first introduced, in sanctioning a system which served only a small l portion of the town. It is to avoid a repetition of this mistake that

the Mayor now appeals to the rate- j payers to support a scheme which will reticulate the whole borough, and place the sanitation of the town on a satisfactory footing for many years to come. It were better, if anything, to increase the amount of the loan, rather than decrease it, if the demands are as pressing as those in authority a\er them to be. So far as the tax upon | the ratepayers is concerned, that is a mere bagatelle if the importance of the undertaking be admitted. The scheme of the Engineer has now been, before the public for some months, and no ; attempt has been made, either by experts or laymen, to prove its inefficiency. On the contrary, it has been demonstrated to be practicable and sound in detail. The ratepayers have now to endorse or reject it. If they adopt the latter course, they must be prepared to take all the consequences.

It is morally certain that, if the proposal fails, no subsidiary or modified proposal will be submitted by the Council as at present constituted. It is also certain that the ratepayers will be called upon to find a very large sum of money to repair the existing system. These points should not be overlooked by ratepayers wheh r *ihey go to the * ballot box to-day. < The reputation; of Masterton as a progressive community is very much at stake, and those charged with the franchise have the power of maintaining or destroying that reputation. Will they endeavour to make Masterton that clean, • healthy, prosperous ~ community it was designed by Na-i ture "and its founders to be ?' Or,, will they adopt a policy of negation* which.. snay spell disaster to the,; township and, ruin to the.health . of ■; th'pse who' live within it? The deciding of these, momentous"■';"' issues' J may be left to the ratepayers themselves with confidence.