CAVERSHAM DRAINAGE.

Evening Star, Issue 5991, 25 May 1882, Page 4

CAVERSHAM DRAINAGE.

TO THE EDITOB. Sir,—l am extremely swry to have to ask you to insert the following few lines. The reason is that an anonymous letter appeared in your issue of the 19th signed "A Member," which raises two serious charges against me. He says I ought not to have rushed into print, and that I tacitly agreed to what was said and done on the occasion, which I deny. In the first place I attended the meeting expecting to hear opinions as to the propriety of the Council borrowing 1.7,000 for drainage purposes, but I was disappointed. When I entered the building where the meeting was held I observed that the members of the Mutual and Ratepayers' Associations were together, and as soon as the perpetual chairman of the district entered he was voted to the chair, after which fifteen persons were proposed, seconded, and voted for, to become the Ratepayers' Association, to take off the stigma of being self-elected which they had previously borne. The fifteen persons elected were supposed to belong to North, South, and Middle Wards, but no one was elected for the ward of Kensington. The duties of the persons elected'were to attend the meetings of the Council, to watch the members whom they had previously elected to form that Council, and to report to the headquarters of the Association. The time that the elections took up made me weary, and I left, so that I did not tacitly agree to the resolutions, as I heard none. When I had an opportunity of speaking! did so, and that was when someone .proposed that I should become one of them. I decidedly refused, and tkat was the only opportunity I had of saying anything in the matter. As to the second charge, the anonymous writer says that I am a great—well, a promulgator of falsehood, which I deny. Several persons who attended the meeting said that my letter of the 18th was entirely true, and if I had stayed an hour longer I should have been amused with the nonsense talked. The only amusement I had was when the chairman was speaking about brick-walling the Cargill road to keep the water off Caversham. I would recommend the anonymous writer to bear in mind two things: one is, to let sleeping dogs lie, as they might bite ; and the other is, that when he attends public meetings (he being so well known) to be careful of what he says, as every word he utters is heard by someone, and, as they say, may at some time be used against him. I think, air, that a person who writes an anonymous letter is ashamed of himself and the cause tie advocates. —I am, etc., J. W. Feoer. daveraham, May 24.