AN OTUMOETAI FENCE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 6275, 5 January 1915, Page 3

AN OTUMOETAI FENCE

A letter was read at the meeting of the County Council today from Mrs Hun*, Otumoetai, who wrote acknowledging receipt of letter re the removal of the fence fronting her property. The writer stated : "When I came here, 17 months ago, I found the fence dilapidated and the land outside the daily and nightly promenade for all the loose Maori hoases in the neighbourhood. The resulting odours from this Augean stable could hardly be described as perfumes of Araby. To mitigate the intolerable nuisance-my honse being very close to the beach-I had the fence re-erected, enclosing a narrow strip of the waste land outside, a few yards wide, at the Otumoetai end, gradually tapering to nothing at the Tauianga end post. Before doing this I asked permission of the Harbour Board, and no objection was made, provided the fence was not below high water mark. The fence is well above high water mark throughout. The land, as land, is valueless ; of no use fo King or couutry. It can hardly be required for strategic or defence purposes, seeing that the important seaport of Otumoetai does not yet exist. The fence has not taken one inch of land from anyone's property, and I defy anyone to prove that it interfered, by the fraction of an inch, with the mode of entrance and exit to their f rms, in vogue? amoDg the surrounding neighbours, before I altered it, the false statement of any man to t he contrary notwithstanding. To carry things to their logical conclusion, most of the fences along the Otumoetai beach should be put back for is the noble and chivalrous custom of Tauranga to begin with a woman and make her the seape~goat \ tt is difficult to believe that a body of intelligent men could lend itself to such petty, frivolous, vexatious persecution, as would be involved by miking me remove the front fence, two cross fences, and three gates, when I have explained, with trirhful accuracy, my excellent reasons for enclosing that little strip of common."

Cr Stewart moved—That the matter be left in the hands of the Chairman, with power to act. — Seconded by Cr Matthews and carried.