FEILDING.

Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 80, 25 July 1877, Page 2

FEILDING.

[From our own Correspondent]. My last communication was taken up chiefly with the separation question, and I gave an estimate showing that the two ridings seeking separation contributed nearly £1,700 to the County revenue, and only received about onethird of that amount back. This statement was challenged by the Chairman of the County Council in his monthly statement, and he submitted another estimate showing that the amount unjustly taken, from the proposed new county was less than half of my estimate ; and as he is an unwilling witness — forced to acknowledge that a sum of £551 has been taken by the majority from the minority —the Chairman has again done more than anyone else to promote the cause of separation ; for the simple reason that in attempting to reduce the sum to one-third of the revenue, he charges the Kiwitea riding with as large a share of the County expenditure as either the Palmerston or the Foxton ridings, which are each represented by two members in the County Council, and have a larger share of the County expenditure as they are entitled to. But the Chairman of the County was driven to this method of charging expenditure— an equal amount for each riding—whatever share of representation it might have in the Council or in contributing revenue or amount of expenditure for its benefit. In addition to this, we are charged

with three County roads outside of our district— l. Awahuri to Feilding ; 2. Palmerston to Bulls ; 3. Palmerston to Stoney Creek — and it was too bad of the Chairman ofi the County to insert Stoney Creek in place of Palmerston, when the Engineer's report which he subsequently submitted to the Council had Palmerston inserted in the place that Stoney Creek occupied in the Chairman's statement ; and which reduced the amount shown to be abstracted from the County, and with the addition of the cost of maintaining the lower ferry, and maintaining the Gorge road to Stoney Creek, would only reduce the amount in my estimate by about £140 at the outside, which leaves more than £900 m round numbers taken from here, with the expenditure as shown in the Chairman of the County Councils, estimate. But as it is the opinion of every one here that all parts of the County will benefit by separation, and as it must come to that, the less feeling that our Foxton friends will show in the matter the better for all parties in the future ; .for they may depend on it that the more friendly relations the port of Foxton leaders will cultivate with the inland towns the better for them in the competition they will have to meet as soon as the second string to our bow will be opened to Wanganui, as we are already expecting to [illegible] a large timber export trade from here, as well as the Palmerston mills. However the matter will end, the petition of the settlers of this district will soon be before Parliament to deal with it, and it remains to be seen if we are to have local self-government or not conceded to us at the unanimous request of the settlers. The Resident Magistrate's Court was held at Feilding on Friday, the 20th inst., before R. Ward, Esq., R.M., and A. F. Halcombe, Esq., J.P. I make it a point not to report these cases when they are simply of the ordinary character of debt cases, &c., but learning that there were some cases to be heard that attracted more than ordinary local interest, I attended the sittings, and found the courthouse well filled, a large proportion of those present being of the fair sex; and what drew them there was the rumour that some women had got out summonses for using bad and threatening language to each other, and of course a number went to hear the unloosening of women's tongues. I regretted very much to find that unneighbourly feelings should have led respectable working men's wives to forget what was due to their sex in thus coming into a court with their mutual quarrels . In one case the defendant was defined one pound (£1) and costs, or 14 days' imprisonment, with a strong caution that the Bench would put/ hat sort of thing down in the district with a strong hand if any such cases, came up again ; and in the other case, as the evidence was very contradictory, the Bench dismissed the complaint, each party paying their own costs. There was another case which attracted a good deal of attention, in which the sterner sex was represented. The plaintiff in this case charged the defendant with having used foul and abusive language, to him on the 26th June last. The defendant admitted the use of the language with which he was charged, and the Bench, in summing up, considered the charge fully proved, and regretted the prevalence of such cases. Defendant was fined 20s and costs. The other cases were of an uninteresting character.