"AN INFAMOUS IMPOSITION."

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1216, 26 August 1911, Page 14

"AN INFAMOUS IMPOSITION."

Sir,-I seo the Minister for ' Public Works estimates tho cost of the Hutt lload reclamation and formation at .tho littlo sum of .£IOO,OOO or thereabouts. This is about twice as much as it would havo cost if done by contract instead ot 'day labour. Tho share of Onslow Borough will not fall far short of .£20,000, if anything, which will more than double tho rates, already high enough considering how little wo get for them (no water sanitation). Yet this infamous imposition (for it deserves no other name) was placed upon us without any ratepayer concerned, or the local 'bodies, being consulted cither as to its expediency, its form, or cost of construction, or any details concerning it. The Government's attitude throughout is summed up in tho words: "Hold your tongues and pay up. 'Speaking for myself, as a resident' of the borough for over 20 years, I shall have no option but to leave the district. I pay close on £-0 a -year now in rates, for the gracious privilego of being allowed 'to possess about 2 acres of broken land, and for this I get neither water nor sanitation—merely the use of a badlykept road and the doubtful benefits of tho electric lights thereon. If the rates are to bo £10 next'year in addition to the' increase shortly to bo added by the water .reticulation scheme, I shall Tiave no oplion but t'o move to some other district. I'-trust, however, all ratepayers at the.next general election will bear in mind the paternal'caro of this soi-distant Liberal Government, which strips tho children bare and drives families from tho countrv under the pretence of benefiting them, "and vote (as I and mine, will doj solid for tho Opposition.—l am, etc., S NGAIO. August 24, 1911.