The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.
Saturday, August 1, 1891. THE PUBLIC MEETING.
Be Just and fear not J Let all the ends thou aim’et at be thy country a, Thy God's, and truth's.
Making due allowance for the current of humor that pervaded the public meeting on Thursday night, it must be acknowledged to have been an assembly that was creditable to the place. The important subject under discussion was treated in a manner which proved that the sobering effect of past experience has been deeply marked. The ratepayers present patiently listened to the varied schemes which were set forth with a perfervidness that indicated the warm faith of the promoters, but there was a calm and critical disposition amongst the audience that seemed to make artificial coloring a thing of no value. Nothing was allowed to be taken for granted, and though there was little hope of any of the speakers being shaken in their conviction, the confidence with which they upheld their views, regardless as to the opportunities of putting them into practice, enabled the points to be well threshed out. The question that was uppermost in® the minds of the people was clearly as to what risk there was of further burdens. This one or that one might be enthusiastic on some pet scheme, and each determined to throw cold water on all rival schemes, but the question of the £ s. d. superseded them all. Would the ratepayers eventually have to pay the cost if Mr O’Connor’s scheme were adopted ?— because, notwithstanding the ingenious way of making it appear that by “Mr O’Connor’s scheme ” something totally different (perhaps Mr Maude’s) might be understood, there is no disguising the fact that it would be yea or nay on that scheme and no other if Government assistance were to be given. The expression of opinion taken when the meeting had much thinned out after a sitting of nearly four hours, could not have much weight as a reflex of the sentiments of the people of the district; but it clear that the Committee’s action would have been warmly supported if there could be any certainty as to no further burden being imposed on the district. As Mr DeLautour pointed out, it is not usually considered a sin to seek Government assistance for a district, especially in the case of one that has been treated so shabbily as Poverty Bay. With respect to the rival schemes submitted on Thursday night little need be said. Mr White’s idea as to floodgates is not original. Mr O'Connor was asked his opinion on the same subject, and condemned anything of the kind being attempted. Mr Thomson’s scheme, or “Mr Sievwright’s scheme," as it was repeatedly called, has had such a test as to shake the faith of anyone but an ardent enthusiast, Mr Maude's scheme reminds one of the story of so many vessels being deserted at San Francisco when the gold fever set in, that traffic got blocked and the Government collected a lot of the vessels and drove piles into them and by this means constructed a wharf. At any rate the details of Mr Maude’s scheme would need to be more explicitly put than was done, there being no idea even given as to the probable number of vessels required.
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Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume V, Issue 641, 1 August 1891, Page 2
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559The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Saturday, August 1, 1891. THE PUBLIC MEETING. Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume V, Issue 641, 1 August 1891, Page 2
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