Stratford and Ngairer

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XVII, Issue 2955, 19 October 1891, Page 2

Stratford and Ngairer

I am informed that it is to Mr. W. Gc. Malone, the county clerk, that the credit is due of unearthing that clause wbioh will enable the Connty Council to hand over fall control of the county road to the Town Board. Mr. Malone is reading hard for bis law examination, which comes off shortly. To Mr. Barleyman, on the other hand, belongs the credit (?) of " putting up " the Auditor-General to the question of the board's right to make footpaths on the county road. This is not a matter of bear, say, bat rests npoh his own confession, made in a communication which he Bent to the Town Board yesterday. The board marked its sense of Mr.Barleyman's action by resolving unanimously that his letter be returned unread. The hoard's aotion will be endorsed, I think, by almost every ratepayer. Mr. Barleyman was beaten fairly and squarely over the town levels question, of wbioh he is a pronounced opponent, and takes this remarkable means of hampering the board's action in return. People don't like it.

The same gentleman, on Wednesday, warned Murphy and Eerriek, the contraotore, not to take Btone from the Patea river-bed where it adjoins his land; as the stone belongs to him, he says. Needless to say that the contractors will go on taking it all the same, under the authority of the Council, leaving any other aspect of the matter to be inquired into later on, if deßired.

Talking of the Auditor-General reminds one that the Taranaki and Stratford County members had a great afternoon with the old gentleman laßt week over the adjustment of accounts. The Taranaki j Council were firmly impressed that Stratford owed them £800 or £900, whilst the, latter were prepared to prove to demonstration that any impartial award would give them £200 to £800 at least. Mr. Fitzgerald's method, however, was simplicity itself; the nett liability of the Taranaki county on the day of separation was, say, £1200, exclusive of loan indebtedness ; the severed portion is ons-ninth of the whole county on a valuation basis; therefore Stratford must pay £180 or so ; and with the loan indebtedness the same method iB pursued. Charming simplicity, is it not? And saves suoh a deal of bother. That Parliament should, however, have enacted that the Controller and Auditor-General, the awful functionary who is the bogey and bug-bear of honest public servants, and at whom the other sort take a " long sight " as they do the Pacific slope— that Parliament Bhould solomnly have re* quired this gentleman to go through the farce of working out such a rule-of'three sum as this, strikes one as being a huge joke, and a sarcastic mark of the estimation in which ' Parliament holds the Controller's capabilities. Oi course, I don't believe myßelf that that was ever the intention of the Legislature ; but the Controller himself says it was ; so he has no right to complain of the obvious deduction.

I learn that the blame of that report misoarrying on Tuesday morning does not rest with the Stratford office, hut with the travelling mail agent, who deserves a rap over the knuckles. It is very vexations when one has taken the trouble to sit tip late to write a report, to have it shut out through the carelessness of a post officer. The Cardiff Dairy Factory Company have received a very satisfactory offer to send their cheese Home, a liberal advance being promised. The offer has been accepted. There is more than 12 per cent of cream in the milk now being supplied to the factory, taking the average of the whole quantity, which should speak' well for the quality of the product.

I have watched with much interest the somewhat painful career of the Opunake factory, the parent concern on ibis coast. Your Opanake correspondent made an appeal on its behalf in your columns a short time ago, and surely it ought to be possible to run the thing .successfully as a co-operative concern. A good deal would have to he written off as loss from the original capital, no doubt ; but tbat will have to happen in any case. On the other hand, if the services of Mr. Sawers we're enlisted, and the concern run upon strict business lines, I think the milk suppliers would soon pull up their share of the deficit. The outside shareholders would probably have to put up with their loss, but it would be no greater if the factory were turned into a co-operative concern than if sold to a private individual. It ought to be worth consideration.

Mr. Stanford has sold his farm on Climie Boad to Mr. Budge, of your town. Mr. Burrell, of Cardiff, has leased his farm to Mr. W. Williams, and goes to live in Stratford. "

Tenders for making up embankments' on Stratford-Opunake Boad were— Harris (accepted), £45 ; Hannah, £48 10s. Mr. Climie has undertaken the survey of Milsom'e special settlement block, away in somewhere on the Upper Waitara. It would be interesting to learn whether Mr. Milsom was ever on the block, and what representations were made to the members of the association. My own impression is that the block is quite unsuited for a special settlement, and that Mr. Milsom never set foot on it to see what it actually was like. It will be matter for deep regret if these people should find their lot cast in a. purely pastoral country. I am told that that is what it is.

The settlers on Pembroke Boad, the shortest out to Mount Egmont, , have determined to raiße a loan to metal their road. This will be an additional facility to tourists and 6ight*seers. With muoh regret one bas to chronicle the death of the Bey. 7. Glover's little child, through bronchitis. It was very sudden, and 4 the shook to the parents proportionately severe.

(fbom otjb own ooebespondent.'j