AN UNPOPULAR LETTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18025, 25 February 1922, Page 10

AN UNPOPULAR LETTER.

LIVELY END TO MEETING. AVONDALE BOROUGH PROPOSAL. The benefits which would result to Avondale by a change in status from a road district to a borough were outlined by Mr. J. W. Shackelford, Mayor of Mount Eden, before a large meeting in the Avondale Town Hall last evening. Tho chairman of the Road Board, Mr. W. J, Tait,. presided. ; Mr. Shackelford traced the progress of Grey Lynn,. Mount Albert and Mount Eden from the time those districts had assumed the wide status of boroughs. He spoko strongly of the more democratic voting—practically adult suffrage—that obtained in boToughs compared With that in road districts, where only ratepayers could vote representatives into office. He stated that he found many, people under the impression that if tho district were constituted a borough the rates would gCup by l«aps and bounds. He quoted figures demonstrate that boroughs could rate only an additional Id in the £ general rate beyond what a road board could. Loans must be submitted to a poll of the ratepayers both in a road'district and a borough. At the conclusion of his address Mr. Shackelford answered a number of qU Mr!°Tait and Mr. Vallance urged ratepayers to record their votes at the poll on March 14 in favour of the borough At this stage of the meeting the chairman invited, any of those opposed to tho proposal to take tho platform. Aa «mnfl came forward he read a letter sent to Mr, Shackelford by a member of the Road Board in, which the writer advised Mr. Shackelford to stay away from the meeting or he might meet with a hostile reception. Two members of the Road Board, who were* in the audience, indignantly denied being in any way associated with the letter, and the audience loudly demanded the chairman to name the writer. In response to vigorous demands the chairman announced that the writer was Mr. T. H. Spargo. Thereupon uproar prevailed, and the audience hissed and stood for some time before dispersing.