THE VALLEY TRAMS.

Evening Star, Issue 10746, 5 October 1898, Page 2

THE VALLEY TRAMS.

TO THB KDITOR.

Sm,—Pleased I am to see that the Northeast Valley Borough Council have reopened negotiations'with the Tram Company, and I sincerely hope that these may result in the return of the cars to the Valley and the discomfiture of the minority, who, for reasons best known to themselves, have done their best to secure their withdrawal for ever. Tbe borough can ill-afibrd to pay for the line and plant, as it will most probably have to do if the present negotiations fail; and though this possibility is laughed to s :orn by tbe agitators and their followers, who have landed the Council in its present trouble, it must not be forgotten that they also laughed to scorn the possibility of tbe company withdrawing tbe oars at all, and furthermore, concocted a series of gross misstatements, and repeated them time and again to secure their end. Let the Council, I say, take the matter into their own hands. In the past they, on the one hand, were assailed by people who have since been proved to have known nothing whatever of the matter at issue, as far as facta were concerned, and, on the other hand, their efforts to secure the opinion of three-fourths of the ratepayers was met with callous indifference. Therefore, surely their course is clear. Let them pay no attention to tbe " old bands ”in the Valley. These men and their particular cronies, like the gentlemen in thp Psalms of old, run to and fro, grin like dog, and go about through the Valley describing the present councillors, or, rather, those not on their side, in their own pleasant little way, as a pack of “ blacky fools ”; and, with tears in their eyes, deplore that thorp is not enough brains in the Council to fix up a wooden god. They must not forget, however, that there are brains and brains, and when the Co|)Dcj.t had the use of their brains it drifted into tbe position of a by-word in every province of Ser Majesty’s colony of New Zealand. I have no hesitation in affirming that any man who claims a lengthy connection with this North-east Valley Council up to the tiipe the present town clerk took office has no reason to shake hands with himself. We, at least, know now where the rates go to.— I am, etc., Progress North-east Valley, October 3.