The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1883-09-25 00:00:00

ebbs anti (TKOs.

In P0.,1e the great .4 14,11. I us of the day at the present
mient i., nod .uhted,y. the I' vk.tone an I Rockford
Public tubing Schetnos. Quixotic as they way
appear in the ~pinion of eorn., stu . the fact elands
that. so far, the t;o-a•he,d Party—.. I presume they
w. old prefer to be called, or the Us-less-expenditure
Party, gui I venture to think • fro• 1 inny rd•PaYeri
will reg ,rd then ~s—have time far ace maplishe 1 their
pap we, en 1 tbe powers el) ;re are to be asked to
is ction the borrowineut hy the town of the BUM of
Lb 000 for the purchase of these two rieoes 41 land and
the laying d them out. The ratepayers g •marshy, it
I. ..ti-factory I, how, will have an oloyortunit• of
exormising their pinion upon the subjoct b foren Con.
mis•ioner, and before the expenditure is a ,nctivne 1.

•- •
My contemporary, the ilcrati, with relf-aa.iefi d
c.oupla.:ency, thua ooncludea leaderette on V.. sub-
ject :
An we et Lt.] a fortnight aao, the whole nnther rued,. :bell
to • great extent Into a ratepayers• questtoo. and •• Um rate-
pave.. are widtog to bear the trillong harden hich the KY-
po•e I itark• will ent .11 on the rates, se du iiisee any
tokktio to the •chetno being carried out.

Now, I fa,cy the ileruid, in dealing with 'hi, question
1., to tsar a sporting atgempting to make the
runoing a little too fest. Are the ratepayers vriliio.;
to bear the Sailing burden of 3d. in the E ~n their
retest From me experience of the opinion. of the
Vetennyere—nini I have opportunities of arriving at
them • go .1, I doubt sot, to those .1 the writer iu the
cold—l conten•l them will be found to be a very
gen,ral objection to this ".trifling burden."

Ad far as I coo gather. it, by the majority conceded
that th..re are calls for expen Inure trw other awl far
m .re urgent chaunci.. At the Cwincil meeting on
Toes lay NI,. II 11.0 n point° I these .tit forcibly, awl
his arguments were altuo.t identical with those I
ven•urel to air in thi. c •lumn • welt ago. Mr. Curti.,
the originator of the .cheme. I nnio I had the Dorset
antaty Some (in which these n des are reproduced)
before him, and replied was g ring to iy
stoswered, but that', • diff t thing—the ~bjections
I mimed, aeriatim. How far he was successful I will
leave to the in Igment of the reader.

I was sit •aking • fe• d sys ago to • gentleman who
lives iu We.t-street, and his remark to me was—" We
should take it more kindly if the Council would
amend their ways. Let us have • fell of rain of any
magnitude in West-street, and at every helf-dosen
steps you place your foot upon a loose paving stone,
and you get a dirty shower-bath uo your legs, which is
trying, is it not ?" I was b,und to a 'mit It was, but
the only consolation I could offer him was the slugs..
tloo that he should migrate to e more aristocr.,tic
qu.rter of the II Rough. Still, this ought not to b.

Again, we are talking atiout a proptrly c inrti•ut d
and properly or,raniw I fire-tirig id., If to sin
Elfor I, cv k Vanche (ti be creici.cd, a, it would be,
within re is •nah'e hint.) wets given to tiike the
n ciaisary step., I h ire nit thi sh.rlit•st doubt that
within a very shoo time a most ethc eat brigade would
be aitahlishe I. To ge Allinson wii griatie thi
ex: eiolitore of MOO upon the purchaui f thu, I uld,
thinks a helm tt woul I ut-t the nec !wiry rviviireosonts
in the way of toil ctn. I Annihilate him to bawl:lbsen
present at the stath.n the t.thee day, when the Sher-
borne (a place of only about 3,000 inhabitant.) brig ide
in lull unit in arid in a sprci..l in carriage piowed
through on their w.y to 11,ounetn-utq. The men are
well-organised well- killed, and I tidier. at • rec rut
fire were to be Peen within three minutes of the first
tolling of the fire bell with their regulation clothes
on, their engine In proper order, tearing to the scene
of the lire which they very soon gut under. The
ab.urlity ,if capping a man in plaiu clothes with a
helmet must be app•reut. That a proper brigade is
wanted for Po d,. and its scattered suburbs cannot
but b, denial, but this is only one of the r quire-
meats, far more urgent than open 'paces, which if
enum-rated wuld easily fill three times the amount
of space at my command.

I give every credit to the writers in the Herald and
the promoters of the scheme for singleness of purpuee,
• desire to promote the interests of the borough.
without any maideration as to benefits which may be
derived from it, by possible or existent owners of
property in the neiebbourhool. That nice gardens,
made at the expense of the ratepayers, would be
invaluable to the enterprising builder, stands to reason,
and that that genius is by no MAD/ extinct in POOlO
Is certain, but the real question is, as Mr. Weetern
pointed out in the Pa/lEllou* case—do Oro ratepayers
receive al Ilia pro qeo I
I think the answer which will be given to this, when
the matter c 'mei before the Commissioner, will be
unqualifiedly in the negative.