REPLY TO MR HANNAH.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 59, Issue 50, 31 March 1930, Page 9

REPLY TO MR HANNAH.

J. VIGOR BROWN,

(To tlie Editor.) Six*, — I am sorry Mr Hannah is not satisfied with the answers I gave to his questions. He is evidently a hard man to .please. He says my repiies- to questions 5, 6, 7 and 8 prove all he says and agrees to tlieir eorrectness. What more does he want? Question No. 2 he says, is not answered. . I stated that separate rates were levied i'or water ancl sewerage and that the roads were out of a loan which was passed hy tbe ratepayers. Napier South was taken into the bor-ough at a loss of £2000. Napier wanted to extend and thqt was the only way it could be done axid the ratepayers agreed to it. No doubt the then councxl wei-e more than justified in joining with the Napier South Town Board and afterwards carried out work that they found necessary. There is an old sayixig that it is only fools and horses that don't change tiieir minds, hencc necessary' work being . carried out in Napier South by tlie council. All tbe answers were either taken from tbe balance-sbeets or the figur'es were supplied by tbe engineer, Mr Clapcott. I cannot be responsible for what council^ liave done during th© last 20 years. I a-m only one out of twelve and bave one twelftb o-f the say. Mr Hannah's vision is not too clear in the proper direction. He mnst look to tlie present and the future and forget all about the "Blaelc Hand" of the past. He mnst modernise himself more. The world is going round very fast nowadays and one has to judge what is tlie best for. all, not what is best for a small coterie. Previous councils may .liave made errors of judgment, but wby worry ? Cheer . up, QVIr Hannah, and make the best of things as they are. We must do something now and help the town4 to progress. Mr Hannah must aamit that as a town extends it must bring itself up-to-date. Hence many things being done that were not tliought of years ago. For instance the Union Bank started its business at tlie top of Shakespeare road. It soon found out the town was going south and pnrchased the present premises in the-heart o-f the town. The Government found the old post office was at a dead-end, and moved it to the centre of tlie town. This was done to bring tliemselves up-to-date and satisfy tbe wants of tbe people. The town is extending southwards. Mr Hannah disagrees with my saying no money was 'sqnandered hy tlie present and previous councils. Does Mr Hannah realise what tlie word squander ,means? It means:— To wastefully dissipate; to spend money lavishlv and foolishly ; to spend money recklessly ; to squander an estate ; to dissipate a fortufxe in gambling. Does Mr Hannah rriean that thi$ has been done by borough councils during tbe last 15 years I propose to give Mr Hannah at a'n early date another opportunity to ' stop the progress of the town by again taking a poll of ythe ratepayers to prove or otherwise what he says is cori-ect. Mr Hannah says he ealled on his fellow ratepayers to stop the loans which he says they did at his instigation. There is an old saying that there is a silver lining to eyery cloud. Let ns hope so. . — T n.m.

• Mayor-. Napier, March, *31^ 1930. P.S. — The late Mr Gladstone,, on being twitted about changing his mind on matters of statecraft and express'ing a different opinion to that which , he lield tweniy years before, remarked^ tbat if a man did not cbange his mind during jbbat long period of additional experience, he would have lived in vain. — J.y.B.