NEW PLYMOUTH HARBOR WORKS AND THE PATEA DISTRICT.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 24, 3 July 1880, Page 4

NEW PLYMOUTH HARBOR WORKS AND THE PATEA DISTRICT.

TO THE EDITOR' OF TIIE STAR. Sir, — I see by your issue of the 19th June a letter signed by " Thought," expressing convictions utterly at variance with the opinions of the generality of the settlers in the district. I hope " Thought " is not the personification of his signature ; if so, the rest of us must be " thoughtless ;" but we imagine that " Thought" will give his fellow-settlers credit for thinking over the New Plymouth Harbor Works and its taxation as well as himself. Docs "Thought" really fancy that the settlers here are going against their own convictions, in combatting the loss of their land revenue for harbor works at New Plymouth ? To tell us that the tax will probably never be put in force was the clap-trap cry that obtained the votes in the New Plymouth district. Then why wish to obtain power to tax ? It was the cry of trebling of the value of the settlers' lands that gulled the Taranaki settlers into voting for their lands being taxed one shilling in the «£, but many of them see that day now, in the face of the heavy taxation they are enduring, and the reckless expenditure at the Sugar Loaves, for it is quite certain the settlers must pay for every penny of it. " Thought " asks us to carefully consider these things before opposing a work of such momentous consideration to us and " our children." Now, this is the rub. It is looking to our children that makes us strain every nerve to rid posterity of a loss of valuable revenue and an iniquitous tax that would stare them in the face. It is because I believe that my children, and the children of every settler in the district, would curse our memories — the memories of their fathers — if they had not used every effort to rid their children of this octopus grasping policy of the New Plymouth Harbor Works. That nerves us for a struggle that, now once commenced, will never be extinguished as long as there are any settlers in this - district to struggle against this crushing tax, that will be felt more by their children than themselves. To my fellow-settlers, I would say, Strive to veto and overthrow by every means in youi power a load that, resting upon your children's shoulders, would cause them to curse the memory of their fathers. — I am, &c, Future.