The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Thursday, September 11. 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 887, 11 September 1879, Page 2

The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Thursday, September 11. 1879.

penny that can be extracted, it has ever shown its unwillingnes to give anything m return. Gisborne certainly has an exceptional claim, because, unlike other small centres, we have no railways running through the town or any portion of the districts. In the absence of a port, we are compelled to pay heavy freights for all we send away or receive. "We have no natural water supply. In winter traffic is stopped. In summer we live m continued dust clouds. It is a town more than most others which demands outside aid before we can compete with other places not laboring under these disadvantages. It really will be of small consequence which three members head the poll this, evening. The little revenue at command, after the working expenses of the Borough have been deducted, will scarcely be worth fighting for. Whichever of the candidates may be returned, we have no reason to suppose there will be a desire from among any of them to deal unfairly. But there is so much required to be done, and so little to do it with, that it will be hard to say which portion of the town should have the benefit of first expenditure. We trust that before Mr. McDonald, our member, proceeds to Wellington to take his seat m the House, the Borough Council and County Council members will have him well posted up m our special needs and requirements, by which be will- be able to show that it will be impossible to develop our resources until some more assistance is given us than what can come from local ratings.

The meeting, last evening, of the Gisborne burgesses, as might have been expected, did not produce any important results, either of a local or general character. The fact is that m all similar elections, the candidates and voters are so well known to each other, that long before the day of the poll those who ai*e entitltd to walk into the booth and record their votes, have made up their minds as to which candidate they intend to give their support; and nothing that can be urged m favor of one man over another will deter them from their purpose. It is a great drawback to small boroughs that 1 so much of the revenue has to be paid m working the machinery required by the Act. Thus, the servants of the Borough would cost very little more were the revenue three or four times what it now is, and there is no remedy for it, unless the Government can be made to see that it is impossible for a new Borough to make footpaths, construct roads, and keep thoroughfares m good repair, where so many of these are required to be done at the same time. The taxes already levied are quite as much as ratepayers are able to bear, and what applies to Boroughs, is equally applicable to Counties. Can it be imagined that the rates which may be levied by the County Council are sufficient to make a road between Gisborne and Ormond, to say nothing of other roads as urgently needed 1 Such an idea would be preposterous. But here we live m a magnificent landed district, without the townspeople being able to get into the country, or the country settlers able to bring their produce into a market. We may borrow money under the legal sanction which has been received, but the difficulty is to find capitalists, or companies, or banking institutions, willing to lend. Our own case is not an isolated one. There are scores of Boroughs m precisely the same troubles, from which we are now suffering ; and the only way out of these numerous and exciting difficulties, is to bring pressure upon the Government for supplimentary grants for Muncipal and County works. The smaller towns of the Colony, m proportion to their size and population, yield as large a revenue to the Colonial Treasury as do the cities ; but while the Government draws from us every