"The Lie Direct."

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8149, 24 November 1905, Page 5

"The Lie Direct."

(To the Editor)

Sir, —So Mr Daniell, the arch-con-spirator in the dodge to abolish the Gorge bridge and road, has come to light now that his little game has been exposed. Allow me to again ask him to publish Mr Robinson's report, and if that does not bear out my contention that the object is to abolish the Gorge bridge and! read, I will give in. As to Mr Wood's connection with the movement, let me rnfer him to the report of Mr Wood's speech now being circulated. "He had got an estimate for the proposed Hokowhitu bridge." Not that the residents had got an estimate, but he had. Now what is that so-called estimate. It is simply Mr Robinson's secret report which embodies a scheme for the erection of a bridge at Fitzherbert and the abolition of the Gorge bridge and road, and Mr Daniell eannot and does not deny it. Why, therefore, object to its publication ? And we have Mr Tattle, of Stoney Creek, who helped to make Mr Wood's Ashhurst meeting such a fiasco, rushing to his rescue again, as if the candidate himself could not defend.himself without such weighty assistance. He seems to have forgotten that the phrase at the head of-my letter is a quotation from your contemporary's " report " of Mr Wood's meeting at Ashhnrst and I lay no claim to originality for it. He is simple enough to decide a matter of which he is entirely ignorant, anel I would advise him also to read Mr Robinson's report, and he will say no more.

My assertions are these : While Mr Wood was pretending to have a great love for the Gorge bridge and road, he was secretly assisting a coterie, headed by Mr Daniell, to have that bridge done away with, that he secretly .arranged for an engineer to be sent up to report not only on the cost of the erection of the Hokowhitu bridge, but the abolition of the Gorge bridge and road as part of the scheme ; tha^Mp Robinson reported in that direction ; and that Mr Wood headed a" secret;"' deputation to have that scheme adopted, but the "secrecy" was defeated by my unexpected presence in the room ; and that the Premier refused to have anything to do with the proposal unless Mr Hay also reported on the scheme. .•

Personally, I have always snpp>rted the re-erection of the Gorge bridge and the taking it and the road over by the Government, and it is a strange thing that the amount I succeeded in getting on the estimates for the work has been reduced this year to £500 from £2000 voted in my time. As to the Hokowhitu bridge, that is a matter for those immediately ipterested. Some years ago I advocated it in preference to the Cliff Eoad, but the local people thought they knew better; but if it is decided to go on with it Government would be compelled to give a subsidy. As a last word, let me repeat, "Produce the Engineer's report."— Yours, etc.,

Fred. Pikaxi,