Separation of Waihao Riding.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 266, 7 October 1902, Page 3

Separation of Waihao Riding.

A meet ng >f 'he Waihao rate;i>vers took place in the Morveti schoOhoom, when there wu, a po’i a t' ndan c, rm doubt owing t. > the tine >vea tie.-, tinfarmers living la get finished putting in their crops; there were only about twenty present. Mr Beer was voted to the chair, and explained the object of the meeting, which was to consider a proposal of the chairman of the County Council, seconded by Councillor Ross, to have the Waihao Riding divided into two Ridings Councillor Ross, who was present, h .id he was sorry for seconding the motion, but did so on be ; r g advised by Mr Douglas, and it w«s only complying with the wishes of tne ratepayers. He was now sorry for having done so, and produced a petition that he wra going to take round for signatures to ay before the council at its nex r meet ng, protesting against such iteps being taken. He said the council was never m such a flourishing position as at, p ei.ont, and it had received over £2OOO from Governmmt in thirds and fourhs, which had Iven overdue for ; a long time. ( Mr McAl’is'er asked Mr Ross it the Council kept separate accounts for each Riding. Mr Rosa sai 1 they did, and that the j Waihao had a credic-h dance at present. Mr Corrigan t’ranted to know how tnat could he when Mr Walker s-dd that the rates were spent before ihey were collected, and at this stage he (Mr Corrig n) apologised for Mr Douglas from whom he add ha had a letter, stating that ho was sorry he could not attend the meeting owing to an important engagement he had made before he kne.v the meeting whs going to taka place, but laid he (Mr Douglas) gave his reason for trying to have the riding divided. He was afraid that Morvcn might put in two members as they have done before. Mr Corrigan said they had every big income in the Waimate County if the money was evenly and judiciously spent. He said they had an income of £10,950, and that the Waihao contributed £3,765 of that amount, which was one third. The total mileage was 1035 mile*, and Waihao had 360 miles, half of them were only paper roads and were never used. Ho pointed out that Mr Donglas said at a meeting held there about ten months ago that he was going to get three members to represent the Waihao Riding cf the Waimate County Council, but in his opinion it was only a dodge to kill the proposal that was then on foot, to form the Waihao into a separate county. He was of opinion that the Waimate County Council never did justice to Waihao, and that of late years their representatives seemed to neglect their interests He thought that if the whole management was left to the engineer and clerk, who practically were the whole council at present, things would go on just as well, if not better. He proposed that this meeting strongly protest ag»in«t any division of the Waihao Ruling, as it would benefit none of the ratepayers in either district. Mr E#ss seconded the motion and laid a petition on the table, which he was going to take round for signatures Mr Corrigan asked the chairman to read it, and on hearing it read said it was not in form, and proposed that one written by Mr Beerbs circulated amongst the ratepayers. Mr Ross seconded this proposal, which was carried. «At this stage some discussi m of a personal nature took place between Mr Ross and Mr Corrigan, Mr Ross saying that if Mr Corrigan wanted to stand for the council he (Mr Ross) would not. Mr Corrigan said he would like to reply to Mr Ross. He had been told by several that Mr Ross had said he was trying to influence the members of the Farmers’ Union, and also the Waikakahi Settlers’ Association, to vote for him at the coming election, and now he challenged Mr Ross to bring forward one in the district that ever heard him mention Mr Ross’s name at any of those meetings or mention county matters of any kind. He never had the slightest intention of standing for the council, and would not have the cheek to da such a thing when he knew there were several in the district more suitable than he for the position. All who were in the roim signed the petition praying that the riding may not be divided. Votes of thanks to Mr Ross for his attendance, and to the chair brought the meeting to a dote