DRAINAGE SCHEME RATE.

Northland Age, Volume 2, Issue 4, 28 January 1930, Page 4

DRAINAGE SCHEME RATE.

WHAT BURDEN CAN DISTRICT BEAR? GOVERNMENT APPOINTS COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE. SRT.rLERS NOT REPRESENTED. A committee composed of Messrs. R. G. McMprran, A. C. Sutherland and A. F. Blackman has been set up to investigate and report on the matters brought before the Minister of Lands by the Drainage Committee last October, states a letter received by the secretary of the committee from the office of the Minister of Lands. The committee will arrive in Kaitaia on the evening of February 3, and will hear any representations which the drairage committee or any settlers have to bring forward, and the meeting with ratepayers will commence

on the morning of either February 4 or 5. The main question for decision, that letter stated, was the load which the district could carry, and the wish was expressed that the committee should bring forward any evidence which would substantiate the figures which the deputation from the committee placed before the Minister of Lands when it waited on him in Wellington on October 10 last. AN UNSATISFACTORY COMMITTEE. SETTLERS NOT REPRESENTED. Dissatisfaction with the personnel of the committee appointed was only to be expected. Mr. R. G. McMorran is chief drainage engineer; Mr. A. C. Sutherland was the Government appointee for the classification of the lands in the Kaitaia Dr inage Area; and Mr. A, F. Blackman was Valuition Department nominee for the assessment of the unimproved value of the county. Most unsatisfactory of all is the fact that the settlers concerned have no direct representation of the committee, no voice in guarding their interests, when | a decision is made The | committee ot investigation is purely a departmental committee. Further, the Minister requests the Drainage Committee to produce evidence to substantiate the figures, relating to the present and the maximum possible taxation of the district, which were placed before him last October. The onus is surely of the department’s appointed committee to prove these figures are incorrect, or failing that to accept them as they stand.