TE AROHA BOROUGH VERSUS TOWN DISTRICT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2243, 23 November 1886, Page 3

TE AROHA BOROUGH VERSUS TOWN DISTRICT.

TO THB EDITOR.

SIX, — In asking you to have the goodness to inseit this m your issue of to-morrow, I am quite aware that I am asking you to take a course which is somewhat unusual, inasmuch as it relates to a matter that has appeared in another journal, bvit trust that the circumstances will be held by you to be sufficient to justify you in complying with my request. The facts are simply these : — That at the latter end of the week just ended a meeting of some half-dozen persons elected themselves a committee to endeavour to get Te Aroha formed a town district (ha\ ing previously elected themselves a committee to upset the petition re borough, and failed), and in the Aroha News of Saturday last we are informed that a petition is being prepared, and will be signed and presented to the Piako County Council for their sanction on Wednesday next, and your contemporary only appearing once a week I shall have no opportunity of correcting the false impression likely to be created by the statements made in that paper until it is too late to be of any use, as the council will then have come to its decision. It is now some three years since the first public meeting was called in the Public Hall to consider the question of local self-government. Mr T. Wells?, of Cambiidge, presided, and in a speech of great clearness explained the working, the failings and the advantages of the Town Districts Act, and summed up by declaring his preference for the borough svbtem. The meeting agreed with him. This was the commencement, so far as I a*n aware, of the agitation for incorporation. Since that time many public meetings have been held on the subject, and in every ca^e the decisions have been overwhelmingly in favour of a borough as against every other form brought in opposition. The last public meeting that has been held on the subject took place in the Public Hall about three weeks ago. It was called by advertisement in the News, and the importance of the subject was duly enforced by a leading local. The editor of that paper was the principal promoter and advocate of town board, and after a very full discussion of the merits of both systems, a resolution in favour of a town district received four votes, whilst an amendment that the petition for a borough be forwarded forthwith received 28 votes, or 7 to 1. Moreover, a meeting of the joint improvement committees of Te Aroha and Waiorongomai was held prior to that, nearly every member of both committee-* being present, at which the area of the borough, its boundaries, and its division into wards was unanimously agreed upon. A committee of four, myself, Mr Dobson, Mr Munro, and Mr Hirst, were appointed to attend to all the details connected with the petition, including its speedy presentation. I have consulted Messrs Dobson and Munro (Mr Hirst being away), and they have agreed to all I have done, and I kept the petition over a week, prefeiriner to present the petition on the spot, expecting the Colonial Secretary during that time. At the end of that time, he not having arrived, and there being no certainty as to when he would arrive, I forwarded the petition, and am quite satisfied to leave the public to judge as to my " arbitrariness " in so doing. Now, as to the reasons urged why a town district is preferable to a borough, he says, " they are more sentimental than real." Then, why all this bother about mere sentiment ? The real reason, and the one most .strongly urged at the public meeting, as well as in your contemporary, is that the amendments lately made in the Mining Act by reducing the miner's rights from £1 to ss, and the rents of mining leases from £3 to 10j per acre, will so reduce the revenue that the goldfields will be a burden to the borough ; although a public meeting called by the improvement committee, and consisting largely of persons interested in mining, memorialised the Hon. the Minister of Mines to make these concessions, and requested our member, Mr J. 13. Whyte, to support them, believing at the same time that it would not materially injure the revenue, as no person would run the risk of mining without a right, when a right could be had for fa, as it is wellknown that scores have done at the higher price [On the occasion of a recent election of member to the county council over 30 were said to have baen purchased in one day] ; whilst as to leases, not only is it probable that more will ba taken up at the lower price, but there will be less injustice in compelling persons holding leases and not working the ground to relinquish oi work it, in order to give others who may be willing to work it the opportunity. However, there can hi no doubt about the fact that we asked the Government to make these concs>sions in the interest of the place, and that they granted them, and now wo are coolly asked to throw aside the best form of local government available, and take up the inferior, as by so doing we shall be able to take away the largest amount of revenue from the county, witij the least burden in the shape of county roads to maintain and leave the county with the legacy of the train way and county tracks to maintain, believing and averring that they will be a dead loss to the county. Anything more coolly mean and dishonourable than the policy advocated by the opponents of theb>rough it would be difficult to conceive. Another result of the establishment of a town district would be that the present domain board would still havo opportunity to urofe the Governor to confirm the lease of the overflow of the drinking springs, which was granted without competition, and without being advertised, in a manner that by no stretch of itniginition can ba called above board. Anyone oonversant with the committee will be able t > form his own opinion on that point. The editor of your contemporary also says that he refused to .sign the petition. I collected all the signatures of the borough petition and he certainly never rjfused me. In order that you may judge of his accuracy I may say that about a public meeting held on Monday last, re cemetery, he sayb " An amendment was proposed by Mr Mills, and seconded by Mr Whitehouse to the effect that the foregoing resolution should contain nothing which would be condemnatoiy re the conduct of the trustees originally appointed, but on being put only the mover and seconder and another voted for it." In the first place I did not move th«i amendment, n>r did Mr Whitehouse second it, and in the next place it was never put to the meeting at all. One oth^r matter and I have done. He says the goldfield revemic will be reduced by (J to 1. I have not the balance sheet of the county council to refer to, but I have the figures for one half year as follows •— • 4*. a. d. Gold Fields revenue 444 0 3 Gold Duty 345 !) 10 The gold duty has not been altered and if that remained and miners fight-* and lease-> ha\e been abolished, it would not be much over 2 to 1, but perhaps he has a .special arithmetic. I should mu.ch ljke to flee it. In conclusion, allow me to thank you for your fairness in reporting the meetings of the county council. Were it not for your reports we in this place should never know the worth of our representative. If he does anything that can by a perverse imagination be construed contrary to the supposed interests of Te Aroha v?e always get to know that,— l am., yours truly, Janes Mjus, Chairman, Te Aroha Improvement Committee. Te Aroha, November 22nd, 188(J.

The Church ix W\les. — The Bishop of St. Asaph, delivering his triennial charge at Wrexham declared that before th,e Church in Wales cquld regain its hold ijpen the people provision must be made far two services in both the English and Welsh languages every Sunday and in each parish in the principality. He hoped advantage would be taken of the revival of public interest in the Churoh in Wales to institute such reforms aa would insure its acceptance among the great mass of the people. There was a general agreement that traffic in livings should be abolished.that the feelings of parishioners should be consulted, that clergymen criminally guilty should be easily removed, and that something should be done to equalise the incomes of the clergy. He hoped the present agjta.tio,n would lead. tOj the formation of a general Church Council, in which laymen and clergymen, both properly elected, would have a substantial voice in regulating Church matters. As to the agitatiqn against tithes, he urged the clergy who cqu.l4 afford it to assist farmers by making what reductions they were able, in addition to the reduction enforced by Act of Parliament He also hoped that landowners, pending Government action, would respond to the appeal of the Church to help to bridge the existing difficulty by taking upon themaelvQti the payment of t\th.et.