PARNELL RETRENCHMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9032, 19 April 1888, Page 3

PARNELL RETRENCHMENT.

to The editor.

Sib,—My attention has been drawn to a letter, written by Mr. D. H. McKenzie, in which he makes an attack on' Mr. Savage for allowing the expenditure of £713 in cutting down Manukau Road, and repairing a drain at St. George's Bay* . He says Mr. Savage "was a member of the Council," and "I am not aware that he raised his voice against such extravagances." * Allow me, sir, to state that Mr. Savage was ■ not a member of the Council when the work of cutting down was first undertaken ; that before he went into the Council, and in opposition to Mr. McKenzie's wishes, he did all in his power to prevent it; that,' after he became a member of the Council, it was too late to stop this waste of money ; and that Mr. McKenzie, of all people, ought to be well aware of this. As for the other matter, it is hardly fair or correct to call the repairing of a damaged sewer in a thickly-populated neighbourhood, and the filling-up of a dangerous chasm in a public road, an extravagance. .. Extravagance, forsooth ! what shall we say of- the bill for firebell towers, kerbing and channelling, and the salaries paid in the. good old times, when Mr. Savage was not in the Council ? I leave Mr. McKenzie to answer.—l am, etc. Francis Geldabt.