CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1600, 4 February 1884, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

MR McOARDLE IN REPLY. ... TO THE,ED1T0R...,_,..,,. ~• • Sir,—Will you kindly allow me a short space in reply; to your leader of the 31str You take exception to;, my remarks re expense of County staff and office expenditure. I am quite well aware that a now systonv of finance'l was attempted by members of. county some months ago. I think you must confess that it was a very lamo attempt, At all events, I did not adopt those randum figures as correct." And, at the present moment,' I feel surprised that you should again bring to light a; skeleton so v much disliked by the thinking portion of your readers. I will now give your readers my side of the matter: Tho county rates amount to L 2600, as near as I can rememberj add to this L 400,. as monies received from County West and Cashpoint, for services rendered, making the revenue for the year L3OOO, Against that you will find payments asfollows:'• Mr.King, L 500; Mr Moore, L 250. Besides which we have five otherofficers receiving, I think, about LI 4. .per month each, making.Lß4o. We' had another overseer at LI 68 lately retired .from our service, whose loss ,to the County staff is much felt. .Only • a abort time ago Mr King was asked bv the chairman whether he could .cany on a certain work, Mr King said, he could not do so until, he could replace the late overseer, so from that I think I am doing right in adding £l6B. We have, besides those figures, other expenses—stamps, stationery, &c—----which will bo found at the end of the', year not less than,£loo, perhaps a good deal more. Add the above figures together and you will find that lam not very far out. I make the sum £IB4B, Assuming then for a moment your side of the matter;is a correct one: i.e., that the greater part of County expense is charged against Government votes, surely there cannot be anyone better acquainted with that fact than the Hon Mr Dick. If you admit this, then I think you will be prepared to acquit me of the charge of any attempt to mislpad the hoii. gentleman. I think you are aware that Ido not admit a possible vote for opening up Crown Liinds as a part of County revenue; nor do I think it right to anticipate any part of such votes as County revenue. But apart from all this the fact stands thus: the people interested have a right to. say whether tho County shall bo continued or suspended, They, by petition, demand suspension, so that apart from all arguments for 'or against the petition, tho Government havo no other option than to grant suspension, provided there are sufficient signatures, and that they are found correct, Ido not think it necessary to follow you through your leader at present, I only, wish to point out my view of the matter. I will tuke another opportunity to. explain myself to the settlers in County East.

Yonrs, etc.,

W. W. McCardle, Masterton, February 2nd, 1884.

[Mr Dick could not possibly be aware of the sum charged against the Government for services performed by the County staff, as it is distributed over a large numW of votes, and still larger number of contracts, MrDick was undoubtedly misled, and we can hardly excuse Mr McCardle on tho ground that he assumed that the Colonial Secretary was aware of certain information which he could nob reasonably bo expected to possess. The new system of finance Mr McCardle refers to has been in force many years.-ED. W.D.]