TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 15, 13 April 1867, Page 2

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

R.P.W.—Your note has caused a reference the Blue Book from which we learn that i n 1865 in reply to a question from Mr. Welch th e Provincial Secretary said—“ It is the intention of the Government to direct the Provincial Engineer to gather every possible information with reference to Captain Smith’s line of road with the view of making a survey thereof during the coming summer, and reporting to the Government on its adaptibility f o purposes of roads or railway lines, with an estimate of the cost should it be in his opinion practicable to carry a line of railway, or a roadway to the Wairarapa by that route.” The question to be asked the Government on the opening of the session will be whether the survey was made according to promise, and whether it will have any objection to produce the promised report of the Provincial Engineer on the subject. We suspect that no survey was made, and that no report is in existence ; yet some years before His Honor congratulated the Council on the discovery by Captain Smirh of an available road!

Inquirer,—There is no necessity for employa lawyer to draw up a lease, a conveyance, or a mortgage deed, beyond that of a guarantee that it will be drawn up in a legal manner. Vox Populi.—(F eatherston.)—Your letter wag received too late for insertion in this issue, but will appear in our next.

A.B,—(Feathcrston.) The question of an assessment on the value of the property taxed, or an acreage rate, is one of the greatest importance. A great deal can be said for and against either proposition ;but we decidedly think that in country districts, in progress of settlement, an acreage rate is best, and that to tax lands in proportion to the improvements effected, or capital expended on them, would be most iniquitous.