HUTT COUNTY AFFAIRS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 637, 14 October 1909, Page 3

HUTT COUNTY AFFAIRS.

Sir,—ln" your issue of:to-diiy's date. Welch has a. letter as to what was.-meant by the resolution passed by' tho ratepayers at Paekakariki a short time ago. . Surely'the resolution, was plain enough: "That stops bo taken to have the administration'(of the Hutt County Council) 'improved." What other light could have been put on this but a vote of censure. Mr. Welch's explanation would be. grotesque but that : it was quite unintentional on his part I readily admit. Now, sir, Mr. Smith is a gentleman' whom I have always found to . mean what ho iays, and tho reason he proposed the resolution I believe was this:-In the first part of my address, I had been making some comparisons between tho cost of the administration of the Horowhenua and Hutt counties, pointing out' that although the former had a million more in valuation its* estimated cost this year' was only i&fl, against JJ1591 for the Hutt. ' I also gave a , few of the items, such' as salaries,' Hutt; councillors 1, expenses'® jiir 10s,—Hutt' (6), <£95 175.; employees' insurance iSO-Hutt iDO; rent, rates, office expenses ,£4o—Hutt, .£320; and .so on. . Now, ' as •'•Mr. Welch was late arriving at the meeting, he missed the above part of. my address,' and so was not quite in a position to judge as to the' meaning, of the:resolution. ■ With regard to the latter part of Mr. Welch's leiter,. I believo most or - us-at are fair-minded, and . being so I thought it \*ould only be fair to., look up' a ,balance r sheet of four years ago, and I' found that instead of there.being a debit balance of JE7OOO on April 1, 1905, it was .£2885 13s. Bd.; on April 1,. 1909,. JE7S2 7s. 1 lid. Now, sir, I think it. is also , only fair to say that our valuations have gone'up from 30 to'so per cent, in those four years,' so that ■ the council .must have been collecting about .£2OOO a' year more in ; Tates, as the same old Id. is still struck; with it . all they have only paid , off .£2103 ss. 9d. AVhero has the balance gone, and where, h'as the kudos gone?' < Trusting I have not- taken up* too much of. your valuable: 6pace,—l am,.. etc., ; . . ' ' CHARGES WHITING. . Paraparaumu, October 9.