REPLY TO JOSEPH MULLIONS. [PER FAVOUR OF WAIKATO TIMES.]

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 532, 16 October 1875, Page 2

REPLY TO JOSEPH MULLIONS. [PER FAVOUR OF WAIKATO TIMES.]

Sib, —ln reply to your letter of the 29th ulfc., respecting the conduct of the Chairman of the Kirikiriroa Highway district, Captain MoPher■on, such condact aa alleged by you in privately obtaining tenders for the purpose of the Board, and placing them open at a meeting of the Board of Trustees is wrong in principle and highly reprehensible in practice. lam a strauger to such a course, suoh a proceeding not baring oocurred in either of the Boards I hare had the honour to serve in. With respect to the raining of the properties of the district for the purpose of rating, if the properties which bare been but partially rated could be shewn to be entitled to that exemption in consequence of not taking the improvements specially made upon those proper* ties (and the rate was the same as the properties contiguous) I cannot see that there could ba auy valid objection to suoh rating. But where, as in this instance under immediate notice, it has special reference to the choicest selections in the district, those properties who*e value has been enhanced by the main roads passing near and through them, the roads having had expeaded upon them the principal portion of all the rates levied and Government grants in aid for the whole time they have been in existence, in that case it can only bo designated the wont fraud upon the rateable property of the whole district, that can be safely perpetrated, because it cannot be reached by any exisciug legal process, because its performance must be tolerated for the time being, as there is no appeal from the dictum of that conclave that unhesitatingly and unbluih. ingly heap injustice upoa the remaining portions of the district that has been debarred its rights in having roads made through it and a proportionate share of the general fund raised in open* ing it up. To rate the most Valuable portion of a district, land tuat is held at from £4 to £10 per annum, at £2 10s, and one of the Board absolutely letting his land at £6 per annum, that the Board valued at 60s, the whole thing explains what you very properly term unfair anil positively nnjust. As to the general acts of Captain McPberson, as Chairman of the Kirikuiroa Highway District, the instances you hare alluded to are together with the injustice Its inflicted upon the district a short time since, when tbe General Government desired an expression of opinion upon tbe most vital question that has arisen (Abolition of Provinces) to the ooun* try since its occupation. With other Chairman of Road Boards be was requested to sign a document inviting tbe ratepayers of aereral districts to a public meeting, with a view to attaining aa expression of opinion thereon. The ratepayers and inhabitants of the district of Kirikiriroa could not take part in the public meeliog in con* sequence of tbeir Chairman refusing to sign tbe rsquisiton convening the meeting (as he' was a Government officei-). In this particular instance the district *a« virtual/ disfranchised, was positively prevented froti adding its weight and testimony to that advanced policy recognised and upheld, not only by thegreatbodyofthe public of New Zealand, but by, a great majority of the members of the General Assembly. A Government oficer —forsooth —the very name I was always led to believe was a passport to all honorable positions, to the elite of society, but here an assistant Storekeeper in the A.C. Force pleads his inability to do justice to a district, as ohair* man of a Road Board, because he is a Govern, ment officer at one time, and now permits *n aggravated injustice in rating a district at from 30 to 70 per cent below wbat u its selling value. What a parody! a burlesque upon political institutions ; it is needless to trace the political antecedents of this Government officer, as he has engraved with his own upon the face of time Mem vien* -Tihel Upharaim—anA proves bejond doubt he cannot fill with becoming digoitj to himself or satisfaction to tbe* pubho that station to which bo waj elected. —l am, &o, Albbbt Ponia. To Mr Joseph Millions, per favor of Waikato Times, Hamilton 9th, 1875.