The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. TUESDAY, BARGE 15, 1887.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2290, 15 March 1887, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. TUESDAY, BARGE 15, 1887.

We have been asked to publish the petition presented to the Hamilton Borough Council on i'riday evening last, and the. names of the signatories attached, protesting against the lending £1000 of the £6000 loan to a syndicate for the erection of abattoirs. It is hard to understand how any intelligent burgess can lie found to dispute the advantages which the erection of public abattoirs, as proposed, to be worked by a wealthy and responsible Waikato syndicate, would confer not only upon Hamilton, but upon the whole district. That so many should have been found to place their names to this petition can only be accounted for by the fact that they have been grievously misled. That this has been the case is patent on the face of the petition itself. That petition starts upon a false issue, viz. that the council proposes to lend £1000 to a syndicate to erect abattoirs. The council never contemplated any such act, and this, by the way, must have been perfectly well known to the councillor presenting the petition. To do so would in fact have been illegal. What they did propose, and what wo trust they will persist in carrying out to a conclusion, was to erect the abattoirs out of the £1000 allocated from the loan by the burgesses, in public meeting assembled, and lease these abattoirs to a syndicate willing to work them on the very fair terms published in our issue of Saturday last, as arrived at by the council at the meeting of the preceding evening. This is a perfectly legitimate proposal, and a very desirable one. It has been stated that the loan was raised for a specific purpose, and that this proposal was diverting a portion of it from such purpose. Such was not the case. A sum of £2000 of the loan was set apart for public buildings, a sum of £1000 to wipe out existing overdrafts, and a further sum of =£1000 to improve the lands granted to the domain board by the Gfovernment. The remaining £2000 it was promised should not be expended without the sanction of t!ie burgesses to the object proposed, by tho council. Circumstances rendered it necessary ifcliat an additional £1000 should be set aside for public buildings, and the consent of the ratepayers was asked and obtained at a public meeting called for the purpose. An exactly similar course was pursued iaii the case of the remaining £1000 ireamired for the erection of the Everything was clone [properly., legally, and in order, and mow when the consent has been obtained, the locality of the abattoirs

fixed, and the actual terms of lease to the proposed tenants arranged, the council is asked to stay its hand, stultify itself, and disregard the direct wishes of two-thirds of the burgesses, and that portion, too, which probably it would be found on going over the roll, pays nine-tenths of the rates.

But short as the time has been since the petition was presented, a number of the signatories, and those whose names appearing there was a matter of astonishment to every intelligent burgess, have explained that" they were led by misrepresentation to afiix their signatures. One signed hurriedly, being assured that the petition was in favour of the erection of the abattoirs, another because he was told they were to be placed at Fraukton, others because they were led to believe that it was intended to lend the money to a wealthy syndicate to spend on their own speculation ; another easy man, ack now led god that he signed it to get rid of the importunities of the canvasser. Some are now so heartily ashamed of the company they are in, and of the very grave error they have been led into in an attempt to frustrate a scheme so fraught with profit and prosperity to the borough, that if the petition could be taken round to-day they would be only too glad to expunge their names from it, and what now appears a considerable minority would dwindle clown to insignificant proportions in number and weight.

And what after all has been or is likely to be effected by the petition ? It is scarcely probable that the c 'ouncil will be so childish as toundo what they have already done, and so faithless to their trust towards the large majority of the burgeseses who look forward to the erection of these abattoirs as a scheme full of benefit to the town and to the country settlers for many a mile around it, as to be influenced by such a petition thus got up. Their duty is clear, to go on with the erection of the abattoirs and lease them. But the signatories of the petition have clone this much of mischief, that they have crippled the council in its work, causing the loss of Capt. Steele's valuable assistance in carrying out the undertaking. That gentleman, justly aggrieved at the false and scandalous statements made by the canvassers, made to obtain signatures to the petition, of his motives in the action he had taken in conjunction with the council, has personally washed his hands of the affair. The council now will have, to deal with the syndicate not through one who has been, as a correspondent truly describes him, Hamilton's best and staunchest friend from its earliest settlement, but through some other member of the syndicate, Capt. Steele limiting his participation in the scheme simply to becoming a guarantor to the extent of £10 per annum to those who lease the abattoirs. For this, the people of Hamilton have to thank the miserable petition of which the majority of those who signed it are, we believe, already heartily ashamed.