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Poverty Bay Independent, Volume I, Issue 4, 28 March 1885, Page 1

Before our next issue appears one of the most vital and important questions which the ratepayers of this district have ever been called to arbitrate upon will have been decided, and the district will either have taken the initiatory step in a rapid march of progress which will speedily result in this Bay taking its proper place amongst the leading towns of these colonies, when its splendid climate, fertile soil, and rich pastoral and agricultural resources will attract that attention which they most undoubtedly deserve, or else have returned back to that state of semi-somnol-ence from which we have been aroused by those who are now using their utmost exertions in order to induce us to take this draught of the elixir of life. No matter how beneficial the movement, or how pregnant for the general good and advancement any public measure may be, there are always to be found men who, either blinded by prejudice or instigated by sheer selfishness, strenuously oppose the inarch of progress, and circumstances have unhappily proved that we are not extempt from such an objectionable element; but, fortunately for us, they will undoubtedly be found in such a minority as to render their eccentricities quite harmless. The red rag of.excessive taxation which they have been flaunting before the public bull has utterly failed to gull the ratepayers into the belief that a raid is likely to be made upon their pockets, and we think that no man in the district can be so dense, after perusing the clear and reliable statement which the publicspirited and energetic Harbor Board committee have put forth, as to fail seeing that, together with the amount of Colonial aid which we shall doubtless receive during next session, the harbor will not alone be self-supporting, but

will speedily prove a rich source of income. One thing should be specially borne in mind, namely, that every well-

wisher to the harbor should not alone record his own vote but should take every possible means of prevailing upon others likewise so to do. Although we are most sanguine and confident that the 2nd of April, 1885, will prove the commencement of a new era of local prosperity, and will ever be remembered as a red-letter day in Poverty Bay, yet we venture to urge that no- stone be left unturned, and no effort spared in order that the majority may be Targe, decisive and full.