NORMANBY AND ITS CONDITION.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 771, 10 December 1886, Page 19

NORMANBY AND ITS CONDITION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL. Sir, —ln common with that of my fellow townsmen, my attention has been drawn to certain statements made in your paper of the 26th ult., taken from a letter addressed to the Bishop of Wellington, which appears to have been supported by “a member of.the Committee.” An extract from your issue of that date appeared in the Hawera and Normanby Star on the 30th ult. Such statements are likely to do serious injury to a district which is daily receiving additions to its settlers, and is likely to attract large numbers very shortly to occupy Crown lands now open for sale and lease. The district is without doubt' the most fertile in the North Island, and if the writer thinks, as he says, that property is of no value, liehasonlytotry to purchase some at that figure to find out his mistake. Probably in no part of the Island is land worth more per acre. I am at a loss to understand how the writer knows that everyone in the place is losing money. Such a state of things, if it existed, would have a speedy- end in an appeal to the Bankruptcy Court, from which appeals Normanby is peculiarly free. Why “ the prevailing depression ” should be made to intensify at Normanby is best known to the writer. Certainly those who are acquainted with many districts do not find the depression worse here than in other parts. The member of the Committee who backs up the distorted statements of the writer of the letter says that Normanby “ only supported one store instead of three as formerly. ” Normanby has had four stores, and now has three. If some are _ overburdened with mortgages (which I don’t admit, because lean have no more certain knowledge of the fact than the member of the Committee who made the statement) ; if, however, it is so, it is no more than probably are many others in others parts of the Colony, and certainly they have but followed the example of their rulers, who have earned for New Zealand the title of the “Great Loan Land.” The price of produce is not lower here than in other parts of the coast, and the dealers, produce merchants and auctioneers of the district are energetic and indefatigable in seeking new and good markets for stock and produce. Stock has been trucked at Normanby for shipment to Sydney, and successfully so, and not a week passes but stock and produce of great value are sent away to Auckland, and now the line is open through the same transactions willbe repeated to Wellington’; There is something peculiarly insidious in the statement of the member of the Committee following that concerning the one store, “but all the publichouses were still open, and appeared to be doing fairly.” You will not find one of the publicans to acknowledge he is doing fairly, neither will any townsman of Normanby back up the statement of the member of the Committee, because it is well-known that there is only a living for three publicans with the strictest economy. The “ publichouses ” are as good and well managed as any on the coast, but they are not doing fairly as publichouses in the sense the member of the Committee with artful guile would insinuate. There are two churches, the Bresbyterian and the Anglican, one of which is doing fairly, and as the latter is not

probably so fairly doing, the blame is laidupon the want of prosperity of the district, probably to the injury of that district, and a check oh those who would, otherwise settle- in the district. Statements made in such company have weight with many who would expect nothing, but the strictest truth from such a meeting, hence it is peculiarly necessary that care should be taken when speaking of any district which may be a field, fop settlement. Now, the English Episcopalian Church, as it generally is, was the last to build a church at Normanby. The Presbyterian was well established, when the Anglican Church authorities thought of taking part in the sacerdotal work. The Presbyterian Church was not clear of debt until lately, but the debt was paid off by energetic action on the part of pastor and parishioners, and there was never any whining complaint of the financial position of the settlers, which is simply insult, nor aspersions on the prosperity of the district to account for the existence of that debt during the time it existed. The members of the English Church, when appealed to, with creditable energy collected money and built the church, notwithstanding many of them had subscribed to the building or the Presbyterian Church previously. It would appear that members of the English Church are not very numerous in the district, or else it is not so popular as the other, which manages to collect sufficient revenue for all purposes. If the English Church has not the revenue it should have, let it be ascribed to one of these causes, and not to a supposition that mortgages keep the settlers poor. It certainly is not the way to increase the population of the district, and consequently the members of the Church of England who will contribute revenue to their church, to cause paragraphs to appear in the paper headed <e Deplorable condition of Normanby.” Probably the only, ones who deplore it 3 condition are the writer of the letter and the member of the Committee. Others have a true faith in the advent of better times, whilst, also, they do not acknowledge that their condition at present is worse than that of their neighbors, but, on the better than many. — I &c.,

It. S. Thompson, Chairman Town Board. Normanby, December 1.