PROPOSED AMENDMENTS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 158, 20 June 1912, Page 5

PROPOSED AMENDMENTS.

TO THB EOITOR

Sir, —The Chairman of the Rivers Board is entitled to the thanks of the ratepayers for advertising the proposed amendments, thereby giving an opportunity to every one of discussing and expressing satisfaction or otherwise with the proposals before they become law. In the proposed amendments there does not appear to be much reason for congratulation. Taking them in order: (a) Wh y should the number of members for Pukahu ward be reduced What is there in the proposed amendments that varies from what was supposed to be included m the original bill when this special representation was granted V hat has taken place during the past 12 months’ working of the Act to necessitate the removal of one of Pukahu’s representatives? (b) Why should “differential rating” be confined to the Pukehau ward! The conditions in the remaining six wards are no more alike than the conditions in Pukahu ward are similar to the other six. Every ward is just as much entitled to fair pla> as Pukahu is, and until it is’ available there will be no satisfactory work carried out by the board, (c) Embodies a perfect pitfall. Under certain conditions of dissent in the board a commission it to be appointed consisting of the Stipendiary Magistrate at Napier, the Commissioner of Crown Lands for Hawke’s Bay, and the Government Valuer or one of the Government Valuers for Hawke’s Bay . To put it bluntly. Sir. and in plain English. I think I may say people have just about had a “bellyful” of appointed commissioners. Nobody would dream of objecting to the appointment of the Stipendiary Magistrate at Napier, because in all these matters a judicially trained chairman is an essential. I have the greatest respect for our Civil Servants as a whole, but it is most improper to suggest appointing them wholesale to commissions of this kind. It is within the power of men of “influence” to pull the strings and get those whom they desire selected. We have seen Civil Servants here in Hawke’s Bay hounded out of their billet because of refusing to do the bidding of such men. Why’ cannot the two remaining commissioners be elected by the ratepayers of the whole Rivers’ District. It is they who have to pay. Those who pay the fiddler have some claim in “calling the tunc.” —I am. etc., JOHN LANE. Koropiko, June 20, 1912.