The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1886. THREE OR FOUR WARDS?

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2447, 8 November 1886, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1886. THREE OR FOUR WARDS?

• » The ratepayers of Masterton are about to bo called upon to decide whether the town is to be divided iDto threo wards representing equal rating ireas and dividing the town centre <rom the suburban farms, or four wds which will split up both town Hid country into qimrters with no line of demarcation between the centre and ihe suburbs. Mr A. W. Ronall has taken up the movement for "four wardß," and expressed an intention of wing nominated as Mayor on this sole issue. He has also circulated a requisition to the present Mayor asking him '.o convene a public meeting on the ward question. We quite approve of the action Mr Renall has taken in the : direction of securing an authoratitive public discussion, and of his making : this particular issuß the ground on ! which the coming Mayoral election will befoueht. iNo doubt the public meet- j ing will put both sides of the question i fairly Wore the burgesses, and lead up I to a formal poll being taken which will' I register decisively the wishes of the ' ratepayers with respect to the ward ! sub-division. We do not doubt bnt j that Mr JRenall at the proper time will ,

jj be prepared with his accustomed ability. j to advance' reasons for the scheime jj which he.advocates. The objections to £ l'> however, are so palpaljje j*nd obviiaus h cfmt he will hare to bring fo'rwaril very k strong arguments .to. 'satisfy the Ratepayers'that the town'should be bto'.ken up into four sections, 'Under his a üb- , division the tradesmen of Queen-st; -eet / whose interests are in every respect, identical, and who contribute a very considerable proportion of the Boro ugh rates are simply divided into l four d wards. Suoh a. quartering as thii i is simply an absurdity. If their intet tats '• are one why should they be diviidtid into four. The only object we can peris ceive in suoh an arrangement is to prejudice their interests, to Bplit then l up so that they could not conserve them , to # carry out the old stratagem of" di viding to conquor," If this Quartering; is i Hocoraplißhed, it may be possible tojpl laoe 'i the centre of the town at the meroy of the outskirts, and take the Queori-sti :eet rates for making roads on the Up per Plain and Manaia. Suoh a result as k, this would be very unjust, and it wo uld d be far better for tho town wardii to a havo their own revenue and the coub itry . ward its own rates as proposed rti .der the three ward division, Underthiß latter arrangement the town could : not rob the suburbs, and the suburbs ccj uld not rob the town, but under Mi | t Renall e proposal there is no j line drawn between town and coun try interests, and the consequence wo uld inevitably be that if the result of i the municipal election went in favor of the town party an undue proportion of ijhe rates would be spent in the cantj *al portions of the borough, and if it wei il the other way an excess of expenditui rr would take place on the outskirts, j 'i: either case there would be disaatisfa c sioii and heartburnings which woul c be impossible under the proposed thr< h ward division. We advocate tb i division into three wards simply becaui k it is an equitable one, doing justic ■< alike to the tradesman and the farmei .• i We bave no objeotion to a four war c division if the dwelled on the out t skirts are willing to be placed on tb < r same footing as the residents in Queen P street, if when a gas or drainage rati i , has to be collected they are willing • to pay tbeir proportionate coniri i bution. We are satisfied that thej should be in the same wards as the tradesmen of the town, but we know very, well that they are altogether unwilling to share these burdens.' Thiß being the case wo fail to see why they should take up a position which virtually means, "Wo will, not be responsible for your liabilities, but we will take all we can get of your rates." If under a new ward system country settlers are to be classed with town residents, the latter will have a perfect right to demand that they should be liable for the gas, drainage, and water Bcbemes of the Borough. As far as we can judge, the proposed three ward divi. 1 sion will work fairly and well for both tradesmen and farmers, and the four ward division will lead to a hopeless tanglo in which all interests will be at loggerheads, and under whioh no satisfactory development of municipal. Government can be achieved. Noi doubt Mr Reoull will advance some; arguments in favor of bis proposals, 1 but to us he seems to bo bent on , "hanging, drawing and quartering" \ the unfortunate ratepayers of Queeu- ; ; street.