NORTH WAIRARAPA COUNTY SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1565, 21 December 1883, Page 2

NORTH WAIRARAPA COUNTY SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION.

A meeting of the Association was held at the upper room of the Institute on Wednesday evening, when the President (Mr IJawkins), Vice-Presidents (Messrs. Meredith and Lowes), and about forty members were present, The minutes.of the previous meeting; were read and

S ' ; PARMERS* CLUB, : ■ Mr W,; Lowes, then, moved the following resolutions which had- been adopted at the meeting of delegates Ist, That the members of the Association be constituted a Farmers' Club, 2nd, That meetings of the Club

be held: monthly after the meeting of the Association. 3rd, That the ; ordin : ary business of the Association at its monthly meetings shall be limited to one hour. 4th, That when the Asso-ciation-is so constituted a Farmers' Olub, 110 political questions ( ,phpll, be discussed. stb, That the objects of; the Association and Farmers' Club shall be to promote discussion on subjects connected with pastoral and Agricultural pursuits, the breeding and general management of stock, the increase and improvement of all kinds of produce from land. 6 th, The encouragement of local industries, planting and cultivation of trees, aud construction of farm buildings; the uso and \iml provement of agricultural implements; and the question of the markets for the I disposal of produce. 7th, That each meeting when resolved into a Farmers' Olub shall appoint its own chairman and may appoint its own committees. . In moving that these resolutions be adopted, Mr Lowes stated that it had been said by some that there was something at the back of the Association •which they could not see ; , |hat ,tho President or someone else ieant to use it simply as. a stepping stone and that the Farmers' Olub was merely a sop thrown in to make the members swallow the- scheme with savor. The best answer to this was the fact that it was proposed to limit the political functions of the Association • tp one ; hour-on its nights of meeting, and do- : vote the whole of the remaining time to the business of tho Farmers' Olub. This had been done as it was felt that tho farming interests wore considered of more immediate importance than merely political topics, He invited an expression' of opitlion Oil the' resolutions from farmers present, ; Mr Dagg asked how they intended to confine the political business to oho hour, when one speaker might monqpoliso the whole of that period. The President explained that a slight omission had been made in tho minutes. The resolution should have read "to one hour, unless a majority of two thirds resolved to extend tho time."

THE COUNTY SPECIAL RATE. The President then called upou MiMeredith to move the resolution on tho above,

Mr Meredith explained before doing so that ho was not the author of tho resolution, and had he been at tho meeting when.it was decided he should move it he would, in tho face of the fact that he was a member of tho County Council, have asked someone else to take charge of it. He would *ow, however, move the resolution as follows: —" That the paying of special rate 3 out of general revenue by the County Council is nujust." He might mention that when the Counoil adopted the plan of levying special I rates and not collecting them he was not a member of it. They would obI serve that the question of the legality of the Council's act was not questioned in the resolution, that would probably come out in the law courts. The motion only referred to the justice or otherwise of leying a rate over the whole County to pay for special works which only benefited a few. To his mind it was a very unjust proceeding. The Roads and Bridges Construction Act was passed to enablo groups of settlers to raise money to make roads, etc., in which they wero specially interested. The unfairness of tho wholo County being rated for special works could be easily illustrated. Was it not unfair that settlers on the Opaki, Te Ore Ore and Upper Plain should pay rates for the Mungapakeha road which many ofthem never even saw. Equally unfair was it that Akiteo und Oahonga, should contribute towards making a bridge over the Upper Tauoru. It would be equally unfair to ask the Wainuioru ratepayers to construct tho Eketahuna road. He iid not charge tho Council with doliberately committing an injustice, but they had certainly made an orror of judgment., Ho desired to take this opportunity of saying that there was no member of the Council whom he did not regard with respect, but in public matters he was ofopinion that the individual should be looked upon as distinct from the local body, (Hear! hear I) It was not possible to narrow the resolution to tho special rate only, as the Council had made the special and general rate one, Was it fair that (speaking from memory) 1575 more than was required should be drawn out of the pockets of the ratepayers of the Masterton Riding to savo collecting the special rate in othov districts, Yet that was what was done. True tho Council had resolved to do a sort of left-handed justice to the Mastorfan ratepayers by promising to hand back £4OO .of the money to the Road Board. To his mind this was simply acknowledging the mistake that had been made. "When the Road Board met to levy their rate, it was proposed to make it the lowest possible amount'which would meet their requirements, as with higher valua-. 'tions arid'the property tax, they did not'feel justified in taking more out of the pockets of the ratepayers than was really necessary, and. though they could readily absorb the £4OO or even £4OOO, the County was not justified in taking the money out of,the pockets of the ratepayers at all (Heir 1 Hear I). Mr Dreyer: Do they only return £4OO out of the ?

Mr Meredith: Yes. Mr Dagg seconded the motion pro forma to induce discussion. Mr Lowes said he had not intended speaking that evening on the question, but he quite agreed with Mr Meredith and would go a little further and read the 60th clause of the Roads and Bridges Act, from which it would be seen that the County acted illegally in paying a special rate out of general ravenue without polling every district in the. County. It was. quite clear to him that the County went'quite outside its powers in the action it had taken.

Mr Dreyer : Will you read clause 691 ';' ,

' Mr Lowes: I can't. There is no sucK ctae in.the Act,v (Laughter,), " 'The President theni said hei would put the resolution if no .other wished to apeak to it. an expression of opinion whMse had io doubt would have its duo weight with the Council, The Association did not . • "■I- i?-,.;

intend to iake any direct action in the matter, but no doubt their present pro* ceedbga . would be the means of pre* venting a similar thing again taking place,

Mr McGregor, before the motion was put, would like to say a few ! worda;,./It ,appeared to him that a on this matter, < The resolution came seeing that he was a member of the Council ' when the arrangement re the rates was agreed to. He remembered, that •Mr Meredith had asked,for an'' explanation on one occasion,.but when £4OO was offered out of the rate to the Masterton Road Board without any condition as to its expenditure, Mr Meredith expressed himsolf perfectly satisfied. Mr Meredith, as a member of the Council, never entered a single protest against the arrangement which he now condemned. Mr Meredith held that it was unjust to tax ,the:: County ''ratepayers for a rate chargeable to special districts, but he contended that the collection of the rate would be a still greater injustice. It was not equitablo that a man, because his land happened to' be. on a main line of road, should be made to pay for it when the road was for the benefit of the community at large. Mr Meredith, for example, might be made to pay for the Taiieru.road in this way, though only n: fraction of his traffic ' passed along it. If tho. County collected a special rate, Mi- Meredith would have to pay. (Mr Lowes: Hoar! hear I) The difficulty of collecting spocial rates was greater with main roads than with district roads. It was easier to define the latter than the former. Tho main lines were used by everybody, and all had some obligation to contribute towards them. 'Mr Meredith tried to make out that the Road Board was economising and having the ratepayers as much as possible, whilo the County ,was launching out. This was'incorrect, tho revenue of the Road Board frop rates was as large as evor. Mr Lowes had raised a legal point. He would not say that Mr Lowes' interpretation of the law was incorrect, and the course taken by tho Council legal or illegal. The whole of the special rates only amounted, to a trumpery sum of £230 a year, and this suta was not the real grievance. The Roads and Bridges Construction Act itself was a failure, The Council had dono its best to work it for tho benefit; of tho district/ but they were asked by tho law to defino impossible districts. He believed that the' Council would bo very loath to issue circulars for the recovery of tho special rates. If they did so tlioy would only intensify the dissatisfaction which already existed, Tho opponents of the County had taken up the rate r» a popular cry. If they wanted to suspend the County, let them do so by a fair fight, and not by aside issue, He had thought that the association would do good, but if it was to be an instrument for making personal tacksA voice; How about the ten minutes? Tho President did not think there was any rule as to ten minutes, and that they would be all willing to give an opposition speaker fair play, more especially when lie stood all but alone,

Mr McGregor continued by expressing his 'opinion that discussions like tho present one would dostroy tho utility of tho Association, Mr Meredith had beon airing a grievance against a Council of which he was a raomber, This sort of thing was calculated to set thorn all by the ears. (Hear! hear 1) The County Council was a responsible body, and an irresponsible association I ought to ponder beforo passing a vote of censure , upon it. The association was not even a ratepayers association, nor was it familiar with the facts which had determined the Council in its courso. If the association set up as a dictator to responsible bodies it would not carry much weight. (Applause,) ' • Mi' Meredith domed tho statement made by Mi' McGregor that the special rate had been fully explained to him. Ho asked a question about it on the first occasion he took his seat, and Mr G. Beetham (who: '.Was' then in the chair) only gave a brief explanation. Ho agreed to accept tho 1400, becauso half a loaf was better than no bread, The President, knowing Mr McGregor's pluck, was not surprised that he had fought this question, but he did not think that Mr McGregor should turn round and attack the association. If the association were to be in any way deterred from giving an opinion it was time that it was dissolved as its influence would have vauished. He did not think that their hostility was due to tho special rate, but to the simple fact that the County levied a rate for the first time and the poople did not like paying it.. Giving a sum of £4OO to the Road Board did not convince people that it was right to take £4OO out of the peoplo's pockets in order to pay it back, -v : '

Tho motion was then put, some niuo or ton hands being held, up for it and one against it,

The President said that thenextqucstionon the order paper was with respect to charitable aid, The law allowed Counties to apply for charitable relief, but lie believed that it was the intention of the Legislature that such funds should come from subsidies which no longer existed. The question was a seriaus one as Counties possessed no Organisation for administering peor reliei. Parliament had been unable to agree on . the question of poor relief, While this was the case, it was not necessary for a local body to adopt one. He thought the Council in making a recent grant had acted hastily and without due consideration. ;

;Mr McGregor agreed with the President that the time had not yet arrived''for making a poor. rate. Exceptional cases of distress occasionally claimed attention, and ai .well organised Benovelent Sopiety was-the proper'organisation to deal with them. He felt grateful to the local Society for the. trouble It toojein investigating such cases. : gVant was not ai, yule but to the v Socieiy' to' uaa .atits owndiscrfltion. TheCountynever entortained any direct app}istjon for relief. . It bcea ? the 'grant came.frpM pointy' out that tho County derived an income

from hotel licenses, arid that as drink the primary cause of destitution, this was a source from which it could equitably/be relieved,. MrEasthope argued that the ratepayers were responsible for the hotel traffic, and that it would be only right if they were made to pay for the consequences of it, : The question of railway management I was then brought up by Mr McGregor, who pointed out that Mr Heron had recently gene four days in succession to the lateton station with a load of chaff, and had been turned back for want of trucks, He believed that a useful local industry was now stopped by the difficulty of forwarding, and censured the railway authorities for not building the necessary trucks in the colony, if they could not import them quickly enough, Mr Buiok asked Mr McGregor if they ought to interfere with the Government, as he held they had no right to interfere with the Council.

Mr Dalrymple pointed out that fruit (a perishable article) if lodged at the Wellington station after noon on Saturday, was not forwarded till Monday afternoon.

Mr Easthope pointed out that goods would not be received at Masterton after twelve for the two o'clock train, and on Saturdays they would not let goods into the yard after twelve. Mr Buick said that to bring up a ton of potatoes from Wellington cost 19s, but to bring up two tons only cost 18s, Mr Easthope, as a further instance of eccentricity in Railway arrangements, mentioned that while the timetable gave the distance from "Masterton to Kuripuui" as ono mile it gave the distance from "Kuripuui to Masterton as two."

It was resolvod to call tho attention of the Minister of Public Works to tho deficiencies of the traffic arrangements,