CASTLE POINT DISTRICT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 293, 18 October 1879, Page 2

CASTLE POINT DISTRICT.

[To the Editor of tho Wairarapa Daily,

•Sir,—At the last election, instead of the hustings cry being whether Grey or Fox should lead Parliament, would it not have been better if that cry- had been; whether the outlying districts are still to have injustice at the hands of the Government continued to them 1 Electors would then have had something to consider that had somo sense in it,

Now that Parliament lias met, it is to be hoped that it will take the course of true Liberalism, (for this is the scapegoat they set up to get their seats) to detect any just occasion for improvement, and influence the House to remedy any injustice that may have been inflicted by former Governments. The Castlepoint district has been peculiarly neglected, both by the Provincial and General Governments, and also by the Public Works scheme. The amount of revenue derived from the Waste Lands of this district is £120,000, and the contra account for the Public Works, £14,000, thus leaving a balance of £117,000 due to the district, or say 30 per cent, of it, £35,000. Surely when we consider that we have no road for wheel traffic, for six months in the winter, and no possible road for passenger wheel traffic during the summer, and yet such a sum of money due to the district, we cannot but see that a shameful injustice has been done it. We also pay our share of taxation towards the interest of loans, and if we contrast our neglected state with those who have their railways and metalled roads and only pay the same taxation, we are justified in our assertion that a shameful injustice has been done to the district. Parliament has given out that they intend to stop subsidies to local bodies. The subsidy to such a district as this, that has never had a road made through it, is only like a drop in,a bucket to its wants. It is not whether subsidies are to be stopped, but whether those who have purchased land in this district, and have given their money into the Government chests, are to be pilfered of it, and the proceeds expended for the benefit of some more favored district. It is to be hoped that Parliament will look at tilings in their true bearings toward these outlying districts, and vote money sufficient to open up both the lands that have already been sold, and what is still waste land. It is out of all reason to expect local taxation to cope with such undertakings, and a most unjust thing for the Government to expect. . Any one going through the district can see that there has been great injustice done to it, if from nothing else, than from meeting bo many hopeless looking bachelors. Had they the temerity to essay towards becoming benedicts by going acourtin', we should find them Bome morning stuck in the roads—mud monuments of bachelor imbecility. We hope that another winter shall not witness such a state of things in this district as the last has, lam, &c, A Yoke.