WAYS THAT ARE DARK.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 96, 24 April 1926, Page 16

WAYS THAT ARE DARK.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —The late Bret Harte has left on record his considered opinion "that for ways that are dark, and tricks that are vain, the heathen Chinee is peculiar, which the same he was free to maintain." The obscure ways and wily tricks of the Celestials are not a circumstance compared with those practised by our local bodies, when they haA-e some little scheme on hand which they have reason to sugpect is not likely to prove acceptable to the ratepayers at large. They, therefore, deal with the matter in committee, which means that the Press is excluded, and the ratepayers not permitted to be present. A glaring instance of this nature is to be found in the recent meeting of the Takapuna Borough Council, where, in committee, it decided to enter into a -most unholy alliance, or rather, partnership, with the Takapuna Tram and Ferry Company, the manifest effect of which, if allowed to be carried out, will be that the Takapuna ' ratepayers will be compelled to pay higher fares for a tram service, all competition by motor vehicles being • forcibly suppressed. As a ratepayer, I would like to know, and I think every ratepayer is entitled to know, what arguments were used in support of this scheme. Were all the arguments used purely verbal, or did some of them take j a more solid or concrete form? What; were the arguments, if any, urged' against the scheme? Was the decision unanimous, or did some of the councillors dissent from it? Was there even one, Abdiel, "Faithful among the faithless found; faithless only he," to the trust reposed in him by the ratepayers. It seems to be scarcely credible that forcible suppression of motor traffic by the Borough Council can possibly bo within its powers, but even if such powers be actually vested in the Council, why should it attempt to exercise them for the benefit of one private enterprise, and to the detriment of all other similar enterprises which may enter into competition with it?—-I am, etc., I RATEPAYER.

( Ted Up With Trams" also censures the Council for its action and calls for a public protest.