MR MACLEAN IN REPLY.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 262, 9 May 1895, Page 2

MR MACLEAN IN REPLY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR. Sir,—As tbc time is short, and the race for the poll an " obstacle " one, I | am compelled to make it also a " j^o-as- j ! you-please," and shall not, therefore, I pauso by the way to try for a fall with \ ! Mr Saudilands upon any le^al question. My present object is not, to overcome iv coutrovcrsy, nor to remark upou the le&al or other knowledge of anybody, but to place reasons before the ratepayers for refusing the proposed loan. When lawyers differ, as they always can do, according to the sido they arc on, it is useless to ask the public to judgo between them. The right of the public is to have the views of both parties upon any matter of public and i pecuniary interest placed before them, \ after which, they can form their own \ opinion of the merits of the case, and of the motives, reasoning and good taste, of the advocates pvu aud i-ou. A mini- j her of ratepayers objected, and slill: object, to the high-handed action of the ! Council, in refusing to call a meeting ] to consider the question of sites. J Lad j such a meeting been called, 1 should gladly have attended it, for we should then have had some liberty of action. ! It would have been only waste of time to attend Wednesday's perfunctory statutory meeting, v.iien only " yes" or "no ' could be said, and whore, I am | informed, ji mixed majority was obtained of ratepayers and non ratepayers- j The Couucil when adopting the Stafford street site without asking a vote, claimed to do so, as " the representatives of the ratepayers." It will be held, on the contrary, I think, that they have acted throughout rather as partisans, in tins matter. The Mayor is reported in your column, as having said, that the sinking fund of the .i'oooo loan, will, at maturity, not only pay back the i.'(5000, but will also pay the .-i'UOO now proposed to be raised. This, no doubt, is held out as an inducement, fur the coming vote, and has not been contradicted. But j we may be very sure that not one | penny will he demanded, from trio payers of the heavy rate of one shilling in the pound, over and above the .(.(i')i.;() and interest. To persons holding land for speculative purposes, a penny, or even a threepenny rale, may not; seem an "awful risk," for the lnnd may be tlieir's to-day and sold to-morrow. But persons of iimited means, holding no land but that they occupy, and upon which they pay ivies, ore bound io look to every penny denianiied from them. 1 am, iVl\, C. L. M.\« 'I.KAN,