COUNCIL CLERKS AND POLLING BOOTHS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 104, 4 May 1911, Page 2

COUNCIL CLERKS AND POLLING BOOTHS.

o TO THE EDIIOB. Sir, — I was pleased to see a letter in your paper drawing attention, to the different treatment meted, out to council employees. ' As a ratepayer, I must enter also a word of protest. • Why ehould the council officee be closed at all on election day and all business hung up. • Also, why should ihe clerks receive full pay for the holiday, and tho majority of them receive appointments in connection with the election? The returning officer states it is impossible to avoid the practice if accuracy and expedition are to be observed. One would think the only capable men to bo had are clerks employed by the council, and that it was necessary to close tho offices! to obtain their services. .The men are not to blame; it is tho system that is afc fault. I would like to kno\v if the employees, who are at pi'esent endeavouring to get what they deem a living wage, wero also favoured with a holiday on full pay. 'The clerks, I understand, have also concessions in the way of freo rides on thai trams, which other council employees do not enjoy. I fail to see why any distinction should bo mad© between the employees. — 1 am, etc., ANOTHER PvATEPAYERj Wellington, Ist May, 1911.

Arrangements for surveying the lib block, technically known, as th© Horowhonua Block, Lttvin, havo been oomplotod by th» Government. Tho Chrouicls understands that - tha work will b» started in about three weeks' timo. A natural corollary to this undertaking will bo ths drainage of the swamp abutting on Levin's lak« in tha vicinity of Beach-road. _ A good deal of Maori land has been alienated and divided lately, and the drainage of tha area is being regarded as imperative. It was explained at a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce that about 5000 acres of land would bo brought into use by draining tho ewarnp. There are, however, preliminary difhculties to .be surmounted. Tho consent of tho native owners, tho lessees, aud possibly^ eoiiio other parties, will bo necessary ; it will also be necessary to spend several hundreds of pounds in earying out tho drainage. Suggestions wero made that the settlers to be benefited should constitute, themselves a specially rated district for purp.o/jeeof. Eadingibe ruqiiQy.l