WADE. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) October 24.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3208, 28 October 1867, Page 3

WADE. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) October 24.

A genebal meeting of resident ratepayers in the Weiti district was convened by the Superintendent to take place at the Wade Bridge Hotel on the 22nd instant, when over seventy persons were present. The letter authorising Major Stoney to act as chairman having been read, the Major took the chair accordingly. He had scarcely done so when one of the Wainui settlers, Mr. Yates, proposed, "That this meeting do adjourn until the Superintendent be petitioned to divide the- district." A very warm discussion then took place, Major Cooper and Mr. H. Lloyd speaking against the motion, and Messrs. Hellyer and Sidwell in no very temperate language insisting on the chairman putting the proposal to the meeting. The chairman, however, ruled that Mr. Yates was out of order, on the ground that, as the meeting was convened by the Superintendent under an Act of Council for a certain definite purpose irrelevant to the proposition, which was contrary to the proclamation that had already defined the limits, it was not competent for that meeting to receive such a proposition. He however informed Mr. Yates and his sup* porters that it was open to them to petition the Superintendent, and also to retire from the meeting if they chose. This, however, they declined to do, and the business of the meeting was proceeded with. The chairman having read over seriatim the olauses of the Highways Act, and explained some of them, he pointed out the desirability of electing trustees for different portions of the district. Mr. Trevor Lloyd proposed, and Mr. Fennell seconded, that the district be divided into fire parts, a trustee to be chosen for each. This motion receiving the concurrence of the settlers, the following gentlemen were proposed for the Wainui section: — Messrs. Purdon, Hellyer, and Jacobs ; the show of hands being in favour of Mr. Purdon, he was accordingly elected. Mr. James Lord was elected without opposition for the Wade. Mr. Farnell, for Wangaparoa; Mr. C. Jeff, for the Dairy Flat. Messrs. Hatfield, Seaman, and Anderson were proposed for the Waiwera, of whom Mr. Anderson was elected. The chairman, having declared the names of the five trustees elected, then proceeded to explain the next object of the meeting, namely, fixing a rate, and either on valuation or acreage. The latter was unanimously carried. He then pointed out the power vested in the Superintendent to subsidise this rate from the public funds. Afterwards Major Cooper addressed the meeting at some length, and, in alluding to the remarks of the chairman, stated that an Act was then before the Legislature for the purpose of giving to each Highway Board of Trustees land scrip to the amount of the rate collected. He strongly advocated the fixing of the rate at 2d. per acre in place of Id. as proposed. Mr. H. Lloyd and other gentlemen spoke on the ■arne subject, and after some discussion it was finally carried that the rate be fixed at Id. per acre, to be paid in two instalments. It was then proposed by Mr. T. Lloyd, seconded by Mr. H. Dacre, that the trustees be requested to petition the Superintendent to enable them to exclude the township of the Wade from the acreage rate, and enable them to fix it at a valuation rate. This terminated the proceedings of the meeting; and Major Cooper, having requested permission to address the electors present, proceeded to state that he took that opportunity of thanking the electors who had recorded their votes for him at the last election. He regretted that he was not able to see them personally before polling-day, being at the time anxiously engaged attending to their interests in the Provincial Council, by endeavouring to obtain a vote for scrip for payment of public works in their immediate district, to be carried out either by local boards or individual residents, this being now the only means in the power of the Legislature, the provincial revenue having been unjustly spent on works in the vicinity of Auckland; and the half-million loan, which would take up the revenues in its repayment for years to come, was already expended on public works in the city and on an ill-con-structed railway. A system of legalised robbery had been carried on with regard to the expenditure of the revenue and the loan, and the settlers of the out-districts had now to suffer from the way they had been represented by members chosen from the city alone. He therefore trusted that this sad lesson, brought now so fully before them, would be remembered at the future elections, either for the Assembly or Provincial Council; and that the electors would combine to put down bribery and personation, that had hitherto carried all before them. The time was now come when the governing class was exceeding the governed, and thus the revenue was also frittered away, leaving little or nothing for the public works of the country. Far better would it be for the province to be without a Government than to have one that heavily taxed the people for its own benefit alone. He trusted, however, that the settlers would now assert their rights, and, with local members alone to represent them, have equal privileges with the hitherto favoured city. (Applause.) The chairman (Major Stoney) having advised an early meeting of the trustees to commence operations without delay, the meeting separated.