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MOORE V MEREDITH.

Mr Meredith's Goats. The Question Before the Bouse. In the House of Eepresentatives yesterday, Mr Buchanan moved an adjournment to discuss the Public Petitions Committee, recommending the payment to Mr R. R. Meredith of £246 15s lid, the amount of law costs incurred by him in a suit for trespass brought against him, the trespass being committed while he was carrying out certain instructions of the Whareama Road Board. The Committee also recommended the Government to bring in a Bill authorising Mr Meredith to sue the Wairarapa North County Council and recover that amount. He thought Je Petitions Committee should have % more information on the subject, and he hoped the report would be referred back to them for further consideration. He (Mr Bachanan) as a ratepayer, represented the ratepayers of that district, and in their names made the foregoing protest. Mr Fish thought it would have been better taste for the hon member for Wairarapa to defer his remarks until the Bill in question was brought before the House, which he trusted the Government would bring down. The hon member had so distorted the facts that it would have been wrong for him not to answer his remarks, and he had never in his life heard a more disingenuous statement. The Committee had had the evidence of j a member of the' Road Board tendered to them before the case was closed, and the evidence of the chairman of the council was not tendered until after it was closed. The petitioner was a member of the Whareama Boad Board, bis father being chairman. Letters were received from the Post- [- master-General complaining of the obstruction of a certain road, and the petitioner was ordered to remove that obstruction, which he did. He was then sued for trespass by Qeorge Moore, a settler, and after an appeal | ease the petitioner lost the case, and had to pay the costs. He applied for them to the Whareama Boad Board, and they further applied to the Wairarapa County Council, with which they were associated. A committee of the latter body considered the matter, and reported that Mr Meredith was entitled to recover bis costs from the body having jurisdiction, and they recommended that theCounoil should, if such a coarse were legal, pay the money. The Auditor-General, however, said such payment would be ultra vires, and the Council then declined to pay. Thereupon Mr Meredith petitioned the House asking them to empower the Council to make the payment. The Petitions Com-, mittee wrote to the Council, asking whether they wera willing to pay the - moneys, and they also investigated a good deal of correspondence between the Surveyor General and the Whareama Road Board on the subject, which was supplied by the Chairman of the County Council. They also examined the petitioner at great uentlr the County a resolution,saying thafftfaving read the above correspondence,' they porild not agree to pay / the costs in the case. After a long consideration the Public Petitions Committee came to the conclusion expressed in their report. The County authorities could have given evidence if they had liked, as there was plenty of time for them to have done so, but tpey made no such demand until the case was closed, a.nd the Committee declined to re-open the case. The member for Wairarapa Council had had the nulling of the' strings, and it waß be, and not the County Council, who bad drawn up this resolution, besides which he bad made frequent attempts to get information as to the decision of the Committee. (Mr Bnch> anan: That is incorrect). The opinion of nine men on the Comn£»*g e wlio had been quite unanimouV in their decision, would be of much more weight than the biased statement of the honourable member for Wairarapa, who had had none of the evidence before him. Besides that, he ventured to 6ay the hon member would stand alone among the ratepayers of the Wairarapa- in wishing tQ; evade a- payment which was only just,' The hon member had. taken too prominent a part in the question,

and he was surprised he had interfered with the procedure of the House to open up such a case. When the Bill came before the House he iraould vote for justice and honesty, against cupidity and rapacity of the North Wairarapa County Council. Mr Buchanan, in reply, said he did not wish to reflect on the desire of the Committee to do justice. They had arrived at an extraordinary stags when the Chairman of that Committee could get up in his place and speak of the cupidity and rapacity of the Wairarapa County Council, They had simply taken the advice of the Auditor-General in refusing to pay the costs of the case, besides which they had discovered that the father of the petitioner had heard from the Surveyor-General, before the obstruction was put across it, that the road was not a legal one, and could not be made a legal one. Again, the father of the petitioner had himself, by his casting vote, authorised this expenditure, and there was a legal road within two chains of this road. The motion for adjournment was then put and lost.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WDT18910731.2.15

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3874, 31 July 1891, Page 3

Word count
Tapeke kupu
869

MOORE V MEREDITH. Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3874, 31 July 1891, Page 3

MOORE V MEREDITH. Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3874, 31 July 1891, Page 3

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