A Retrospect.

Observer, Volume XI, Issue 780, 16 December 1893, Page 3

A Retrospect.

An effort is being made by the Star to create the impression that the borough business of Onehunga is in a very muddled state, and ihat the election of a female Mayor has been accepted as the best course to adopt in order to set things straight. This is more flattering to Mrs Yates than it is truthful. Borough matters were never in a more satisfactory state than they are at present, and it is a recognised fact in Onehunga that the borough has never been so wisely or successfully managed as has been the case under the Erson regime. Moreover, a word in reference to toe supposed desire for female government. Of the 500 burgeßßes on the roll, only 210 took the trouble to record their votes, and of theße Mrs Yateß had a narrow majority.

Let us glance at a little of what Dr. Erson has accomplished since he became Mayor. A loan of £5000 for a waterworks scheme haviDg been raised, the works were completed and opened, and the revenue from this Bource^now reaches a sum of £950 per annum. A new courthouse, with accommodation for justices and solicitors, was obtained for the town. New municipal buildings were erected and paid for at a cost of £500, which now, besides providing Council chambers and Town Clerk's offices free of cost, bring in by sub-letting of offices £70 per annum to the general f undß. Thus, free offices were furnished and a profit made beside?. The National Bank of New Zealand were perBuaded to open a branch in the town. Then a Boheme for supplying Epsom, Ellerslie, and Newmarket was definitely settled at lOd per thousand gallons, and is still nnder the consideration of these local bodies. A scheme of permanent improvements throughout the borough was also carried into effect.

Nor is this all. Dr. Erson himself in- I troduoed the telephone into Onehunga and now there are ten subscribers. Upwards of a mile of new water-mains have been paid for and laid, thus increasing the Borough revenue and reducing insurances. But I might go on ad infinitwnto tell you of the improvements that have been effected and the progress made. Look at the fact that the general and water funds are both well in credit; at the new hose and plant with which the Fire Brigade have been supplied ; at the excavations made at the Springs to increase the water supply ; at the good financial position in which the town stands ; at the gratifying fact that the legacy of £200 liabilities left by Dr. Erson's predecessor for law expenses, etc., has been paid ; and at the reforms iv keeping the acoounts instituted by Mr Angus Gordon, whose system of finance has won the encomiums of the Government auditors. And yet, in the face of all this, the Star has the temerity to suggest that things are in a muddle. Let us only bope that when the term of the female Mayor has expired the affairs of the borough will be even one half as prosperous and satisfactory as they are now.