CORRESPONDENCE.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1140, 24 January 1903, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—ln your issue of Tuesday, 20th inst., a letter appeared, signed " Katepajer." Who he is, what he is, or where he is, I know not. He must be somebody, or at least something. He seems to be greatly alarmed at the Otama farmers trying to get the bridge over the Mataura protected. He considers it a waste of public money, and oilers his opinion as to the best way of dc-aling with the matter, instead of allowing engineers to waste public money experimenting. Now, Sir, if he be an authority on river encroachment, why did ho not sign his name, so that the engiueers could have found him out and consulted with him ? At anyrate, if his opinion is worth anything at all, it certainly would have been worth more if be had kept it until it was asked. He says the Otama farmers long ere now should have established what he cUls a river protection board to deal with the question of river encroachment, and no doubt he being an authority on such matters would like to see his grand ideas adopted by the Otama farmers. But Mr Ratepayer cannot j expect to get all he wants in this wcrld. Probably in the next he will get more than he wants, and still be short of his due 3. As to the Otama farmers not being alive to their interests, let me inform him they are very much so. They are asking for nothing but what they are justly entitled to, and in so doing they are attending to their own business. I trust in future " Ratepayer " will do likewise. —I am, etc., Gavin Dickson. Otama, Jan. 23, 1903. TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—ln reference to a dysppptic letter which appeared in your issue of the 20th inst. signed " Ratepayer " ; In common fairness to the sixty or Eeventy ratepayers who use the Otarna bridge and the roads in connection with it, we would like to know whether " Ratepayer " is quite certain that the rates, paid by those who use the bridge ■ as a connecting link between their farms and their market, have not up to date been sufficient to meet the expenditure. And passing on to the proposed Government grant, does not common sense suggest that it is better for the Government to spend £SOO to preserve the present connection than to be called upon to span the river again at a probable cost of from £IOOO to £2OOO ?-I am, etc., A. Wayte, Otamita.

OTAMA BRIDGE.