THE HOKITIKA CORPORATION.

West Coast Times, Issue 624, 24 September 1867, Page 3

THE HOKITIKA CORPORATION.

4 TO THE EDITOE OF THE WEST COAST TIME 3. Sib, — On the eve of a general election for the Town Council, it would be perhaps a wise step on the part of the people of this town to ascertain how they stand in relation to the law and to the proposed elections. So many rumors are afloat that I suppose few people will be sorry to know tho truth, even if it be strange and perplexing. The condition of the Corporation of the town of Hokitika is certainly remarkable. In the first place, there are no citizens. The third section of the Act of 1867 distinctly states who shall be citizens and members of the Corporation, and I think that it must be patent to every person that there is not a single citizen in Hokitika. The Ratepayers' Roll, therefore, is so much waste paper ; and if a solitary person chooses to object to every other name besides his own on the roll it seems to me he must succeed. Then there is no Corporate property. The property of the old Corporation never passed to the new, and thus rates, grants, books, &c, &c, at present used by the Corporation, do not belong to them. Then it is certain that all the Councillors must retire on the 9th of October, and it is equally certain that only five can be reelected. The Council, therefore, which is to consist of nine, must only number five. These, we must admit, are somewhat serious errors, and to manage at all will be a matter of extreme difficulty. No doubt a short Bill could be introduced into the Assembly to rectify the existing confusion, and the sooner this is done the better. I am, &c, W. L. Rees. A witty lady tho other evening, when the talk was running on the barbaric splendour of an Eastern, who is millonaring it in Paris, said, "Ho would have been very well in the East, where, uncivilised, he would have been a wild boar. Civilisation lias made the wild bo.ir a hog."