TO THE EDITOR.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 3837, 21 April 1899, Page 2

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, — I have perused with much interest your leader on the above as published in your issue of the 12th inst., you have written in a calm, judicial and impartial spirit, and though the preponderance of your judgment is given in favour of Mr Davidson's policy as against mine, I expect that before I conclude this letter you will admit that you have been misled by wrong information, and as an impartial man wiß reveise the decision. I assume at the outset, that per; sonally you have not inspected the road and that all the arguments you have built up as to-ttre'"prb-tractsd soffeyJMgs ' for *at least three or fonj^years ' of ' man and beast ' my ' heroic ' policy, are based upon erroneous information. I will therefore place before

you the true position of the case, confining myself to the Tauranga County boundary with which aUnt we have to deal. The length of the road from the point at which the track is at present completed as a 12 feet road to the County boundary, upon which an 8 feet track has been already made, (and which I admit is sadly out of repair) is about 6 miles, certainly under 6£ miles. I have carefully gone into the cost of converting this 8 feet track into a 12 feet road fit for vehicular traffic, and give me a free hand and I will undertake to get this road completed 12 feet wide on ifce solid for about £250, but exclusive of rock cutting for £200, the sum actually voted by Parliament for the work. Give me at the outside £100 more above the £200 available, and I undertake to have the members and officials of your Borough Council and the Tauranga Council driven to the County boundary over a road fully completed

to the satisfaction of the Govern ment and supply them with a champagne lunch in addition and make besides a very respectable profit on the contract if I should be a contractor. Now Mr Cadman is a practical man and a sensible man, he is familiar with the entire position, the Katikati Road Board having been in correspondence with his Department «on the subject commencing so far back as September 1894, and does any rational man mean to" tell me that if we went to Mr Cadman placing the facts before him that with some £2,000 already spent on this road we only ask him for £100 more to complete thfework, close the transaction and thereby relieve him from further applications by an importunate public body, that he will refuse our request and especially when the Right Hon. the Premier has assured us ' that money is no object.' I see by the papers that Mr Cadman visits his constituents next month, His Excellency the Governor visits Katikati next month, and it might be advisable for our Road Board to send an invitation to Mr Cadman to meet the Governor and submit our application before him with the assistance of Mr Herries who has already accepted our invitation. Now Mr Editor kindly refer to your own published report of the proceedings of the County Council in your issue dated March 3rd, wherein the County Chairman is reported to have suggested as follows : — * He (the Chairman) thought it would be best to apply to the Department for leave to employ one or two men permanently to keep what had been done in repair, etc. ? Will jou not admit that by adopting this fiddle-de-dee policy by which two valuable months have already been lost the ' sufferings of man and beast ' will be almost indefinitely prolonged, (for two years at all events) before the £200 will have been expended, while by adopting my forward policy which you and Mr Davidson term 'heroic,' the suffering agony will be reduced to about three months (not 3 or 4 years as you state)~so far as the County of Tauranga is concerned. I desire to be loyal to the Council and will not therefore prove how the road could be at once completed for vehicular traffic with funds at present available. Having therefore reached our boundary, there only remains a short distance through the Piako County to reach the railway station, this work may very safely be left in the hands of that County Council, who possess in Mr Chepmell, not only a gentleman, but a gentleman of ability and experience as Chairman, supported by an intelligent and unanimoas Wj of Councillors, iu.ctodiag' Mr Herries who is personally interested iv the early completion of the road. Allow me, en passant, on public grounds and on behalf of the Katikati Road Board, to thank the majority in your Borough Council for the support they have given this work, dh eating themselves of petty personal differences between Mr Davidson and myself cm matters of public policy, they have as an independent body joined tbe Te Aroha Borough Council in making our wants known to Government, while as to the action of

the minority it is but a repetition of my experience extending over 17 years of Tauranga public men, though I confess I felt disappointed with three of those gentlemen from whom I expected more liberal views. In conclusion, referring to Mr Pavidson'o letter which he read at the last meetipg of the Council, T oottirider he adopted anything but a manly course in thus replying to my letter, he took advantage of his position as Chairman, with a majority at his back, umter the plea of niakiug » personal explanation to reatfa ngm«role of personal attacks and unjust insinuation* «gain*t myself, though inforned by the acting Chairman, I (Air Piatt), that it was not necee-

saryto traverse the entire letter, but I now challenge and defy Mm to prove that I had to swallow * a bitter pill ' or *to fritter away ' the Council's funds. I confess I did secure after two adjournments a small grant of some £20 which made the road passable for safe [vehicular traffic to reach the furthest settlor's home on the road. I got all I asked for, but I feel that two or three members of the Council endeavour ' to sit on me ' and I decline cto be sat on ' especially when I know suchis not the intention of the majority of the Council, and to show how little effect Mr Davidson's statements had on my feelings I may remind you that I offered to second his own resolution No 2, providing he dropped No 1 and that he consented to expend the entire of the £200 in completing the road. As to Mr Davidson's concluding remarks about ' biting noses or faces^' I consider such are more consistent with 1 the denizens of Billingsgate than with a person occupying what should be considered the more dignified position of aCounty Chairman. Mr Davidson may howevfr bark at me as loud as he likes, out of respect to the Chair I will bow in the future as in the past to his ruling in the Council Chamber, but he will not deter me from expressing my views in the Press on public matters, which in the lethargic state of public opinion in the district should at all events increase an interest in the circulation of your paper.— *l am, etc., Geq. Vesey Stewaet.