THORNDON RECLAMATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4520, 15 September 1875, Page 2

THORNDON RECLAMATION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEAJLAND TIMES. Sir, —I hope that the sale of the Thorndon reclamation to the Town Council will be prevented in the meantime. The bargain is All onesided.l The city of Wellington contains nearly one-third of the population of the province, and contributes to the provincial revenue in a greater degree than the country districts, and on these grounds is justly entitled to a proportionate expenditure of the provincial revenue; but instead of this, during the last session, Wellington received nothing but a paltry £4OOO in aid of the education of the children of parents who could well dispense with eleemosynary assistance ; and now, by the Reclamation Bill, it is sought, to serewout of the city a profit of £30,000, to be spent in obtaining the , support of rural majorities. Verily, Wellington has good cause to throw up its hat and huzza for provincialism. But I also object to a valuable estate, such as the reclamation, being handed over to the tender mercies of the Town Council, as at present constituted. What guarantee is there that it will be properly managed ? The conduct of the Council in municipal affairs has been below contempt. Witness the city now uudrained, unpaved, unlighted, dirty, and unhealthy in the extreme, waiting only the seeds of an epidemic to bo sown to decimate the population. Witness the rates frittered away in salaries and cost of collection. Witness the wharf tumbling to pieces, and no provision for another, but by the wretched expedient of borrowing. No ; if the land is of any value beyond its cost of reclamation, let it bo handed over to a Harbor Board, and thus secure both intelligent management of the estate and cfliclcnt and economical wharf accommodation to the public.—l am. &0., . Citizen.