CORE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1957, 27 August 1891, Page 19

CORE.

August 25. — " Ho more rates " was the end of one of the liveliest meetings ever held at Gore. At a cheap entertainment the meeting was very superior, but as a reasonable discussion between tbe ratepayers upon a reasonable proposal put before them it was lamentably inferior. There must have been somewhere about 200 people present in the Town Hall, but not half of them were ratepayers, the majority of the audience having turned up out of •heer curiosity and to get a little inexpensive amucexnent. The mayor (Mr John MacGHbbon) explained that the oounoil having considered that it was advls-j able to strike a 15d rate, it was necessary before that oould be done to obtain the consent of the ratepayer*. Tbe present rate of Is was not enough, and at the end of the present year there would be an overdraft of 43577 odd, and in March '94 debentures for £2500 would fall due. The interest on the* debentures and present overdraft came to £250 a year. The only way to clear off the debt was to increase the rates; The rates at Is brought in £600,) the additional rate of 3d would bring in £150, and; this, with the Government subsidy of 5d in the pound, would mean a. total of £180. If the borough kept within its income and saved £300 or £400 a' year, then in three years' time they would be able to; wipe off their overdraft and retire £1000- of deben-; tures. In the not very distant future the £iSO rioW) going' in interest could then be' used for improvements. Mr J. D. Hunter strongly opposed any increased rate. When Gordon was amalgamated with Gore it was distinctly understood that the liabilities of each ward should be met by eaoh ward. If the other wards wanted to pay off old liabilities leb them do so, but the east ward had nothing to do with it. He. moved thatthe imposition of arate of 15d was undesirable, a Is rate being sufficient for all requirements. Mr Hunter then read certain sections of tbe Municipal, Corporations Act to show that the East ■' Ward, (Gordon) could not be rated for the benefit of tbe other wards, and added that he Bhould refuse to pay 1 the rate if ib were levied, and contest the matter and stand all the court costs himself.- Mr Archibald Fletcher also opposed the rate, and Mr I. S. Simson followed. Messrs WhitMngbam and Ballintine also opposed any increased rate, and the meeting then; became very disorderly, Briggs (the nightman)' mounting the platform and speaking, and b?ing followed by "Tom Staples." Pat Leahy then' got op to speak from the body of the hall, but had to. get on to tbe platform, where bis failure in begin-; ning to speak kept the audience in roars of laughter, until Pat recovered himself enough to say what he! meant ; whereupon the audience received him well, and listened patiently to the end. An informal dis-j cussion followed about the proposed traffic bridge, j but nothing definite was or oould be deoided. ! Diphtheria Soabb - In spite of tbe publicly-! advertised notice tbat the medical men see no] cause for alarm, the attendance at the Gorej School fell off 100 lost w«ek. Thanks to frequent} wind and rain, the health of Gore is good and tbe , scare unjustified, though should we have a spell of, dry and still weather sickness is bound to come, for in spite of the nominal appointment of a medical officer (who is not supposed to inspect unless specially ordered to do so and paid a guinea for inspec-, tion) the unolesnlinesß of scores of backyards in and' around Gore still continues and would be a disgrace. to the smallest community. It may seem hardly ore- , dibla, but there are actually soores of people in Gore,' supposed (erroneously) to be fairly-well educated! and respectable, who keep their front rooms as ehowy as you please, but who will not see that con- i ■tant and scrupulous cleanliness is not only a matter of healthiness, but a matter of life and death for, their neighbours as well as for themselves. People, auoh as these, even if their houses already have! drains, are too lazy to use them, and they:" can't, ■cc any harm " in flinglDg the contents of a slop pail broadcast over their back yards every morning (a. filthy habit, which saturates the soil with poieon for years to come), and they " don't see what else they can Co" but throw their daily Bcaps and offal unburied upon an open dust heap to become putrid,) and be distributed over the whole town in the form of disease-bearing dust the next dry wind that blows, and in the eumraer to breed flies by countless' myriads. Tbe fact really is that sanitary laws never ' will ba effectively enforced in New Zealand until' local governing bodies are made answerable in' damages to the individual or his relatives for disease and death directly traceable to tbe negligent nonenforcement by the local bodies of the powers wbioh they now have, and whioh if watchfully and peremptorily enforced would almost entirely banish disease from amongst us.