The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1891.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3707, 10 January 1891, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1891.

In 1888 the North County borrowed .£B,OOO for the poraplstion of the trunkUne between T.aueru and Tenui. and co provide interest and charges on this undertaking it established a tollhouse near tho Taueru. At she same time a pledge was given that if a rate which had to be struck as a matter" ?* fo™ to comply with the provi3ions of the .Local Bodies Loans Act were collected the toll would be abandoned. This was a contract made between the County Council and some fifty-four ratepayers interested in the same, and it is now proposed that the toll shall be abolished and the rate of one-seventh of a penny in the £ collected in lieu of it. Inasmuch as a toll gate was a condition of the agreement made between the settlers and the County, | it is essential that their consent should be obtained to the proposed change, and the County Council has taken a perfectly proper course in referring t he question to them. Out of the fifty-four ratepayers some eight or nine large holders of property would, were the rate collected, cons tribute the lion's share of it. Messr Williams' and Beetham's proportion of £2O 9s 7d heads the list, and we understand this firm is willing to pay the rate and free the road. We trust'other large owners will prove equally public spirited. There are a considerable number af smaller own~ ers whose rates would amount to little more than a shilling or two each per annum, and we do not suppose that there would be any great objection on their part to sacrificing the gate. We trust the decision of the settlers will condemn the toll which is a clumsy method of raising taxation. The amount required to meet iutorest on this loan is, we understand, £l6B per annum, and the toll gate brings in £229, at least fifty per cent more than is needed. Then again it costs £52 per annum to maintain, so that the expense of collection is something like 20 per cent, whereas the cost of collecting a rate would be unlikely to exceed 5 per cent. But if in addition to this the loss of time, the worry and annoyance consequent upon the public being made to stand and deliver were taken into the acj count, it would be found that to raise a revenue of little more than £l5O, j about £SO has to be spent in cash apt! an equal amount in lost time.

The matter, however, is one for the' settlers themselves to consider ani letermine. The Taueru resident?, who are naturally anxious to do away with the toll, should form a committee for interviewing all ratepayers interested and inducing them to give a favoiable reply to the application which is now about to be made to diem by the County. In advanced and progressive districts people will not stand toll gates, and we hope the people of the Castlepoint, Akitio. and Wainuioru ridings will at this juncture take the advanced and progressive view.