THE ELECTIONS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume III, Issue 205, 1 February 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE ELECTIONS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR.

Sir, — I see in your colums an elaborate address " To the electors," from the pen of our aspiring townsman Mr. M. D. King. I trust the electors will not be led astray by Mr. King any more. He has tried his hand both in county councils and town boards, and as his doings ai*e still alive in the minds of most of the ratepayers I will not trouble you with a repetition of them, but only remark the townspeople know to their sorrow how the rates were spent or mortgaged during his short reign as member of the Hawera Town Board ; in fact, the retiring board will hardly be able to present a clean sheet to the new council. Some of his schemes are wild, or at least would be wild in the hands of men like Mr. King. Heavy borrowing means heavy taxes, and therefore heavy burdens for the taxpayer; not only that, but it means retarding the progress of the place in two ways at leaßt. Firstly — it will be the means of driving away some of those people who are now in the town ; and, secondly, it will have the effect of keeping others out, as high rents will consequently follow upon high rates. Mr. King swears by Mr. Toy's plans ; it is well for him he does, for I think more swear at them than by them. With regard to those plans, a good many people think that if Hawera is to be drained effectually, it will have to be done under ground; consequently new plans, or, a I least, alterations willjhave to be made in the present ones. Hawera has gone steadily on since it started, and will continue to do so still if tlie electors will only put the right men in the right place, and let men like Mr. King attend to private speculations and not public— I am, &c., Ratepayer.