Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-02-26

of the town which was not entirely
swept away by the opponents.
Now. what does division mean?
While / have before me an exhaustive
tabulation of figures from the books of
the town, | do not propose to burden
YOU with them. I will use round num-
beers, fractions and proportions which
may be verified by the tabulation to
which / referred. and | find on my
desk an extract of this tabulation ae-
companied by a map of that town, and
[ notice on the desks about me a sim
liar paper and assume that each MEM
Der has one. You will find that the
map of Bristol resembles in some de-
gree the human hand. with the fore
finger partially closed and the second.
third and fourth fingers compressed
together. and the whole hand repre-
senting the town of Bristol, the thumb
that of South Bristol desiring to be set
off, the three fingers, Pemaquid Point.
and the forefinger knuckle old Pema-
quid and Pemaquid Beach.
Now the part of the town that is to
be set off represents q per cent. of the
valuation and there goes with the
town but II per cent. of the roads,
schools and bridges. and not one pau
per. The remainder of the town rep
resenting 70 per cent. of the value has
So per cent of the roads, schools and
bridges and all the paupers. You will
note by this. without going further in
to detail, how unevenly the burdens of
municipal support is divided. The first
reason advanced by the proponents is
that they have no representation on
the board of officers
1t appeared in evidence before the
committee that they had been repeat
eddy offered positions on the Board of
Seleetmen and upon the School Board,
that they had held these positions in
the past but that in recent years it
appeared that they of South Bristol
wefesunable to agree upon the men that
they wanted for that place and that the
voters were obliged to Select men from
other places for that position. 1t did
appear that they had member on the
School Board in 1917, who, through i'll
health, was obliged to resign.
A second reason advanced was that
the road money was not equally dis
tributed. 1t appeared in evidence that
South Bristol IN 1911 an 1912 had eS-
pended upon the roads $50 per mile.
The average amount expended upon
the rest of the town was under $40 per
mile. The amount expended upon the
Pemaouid Point and New Harbor
branch was $29 per mile. showing that
South Bristol had received from 20
per cent. tn 10 per cent. more money
per mile than that expended upon the
rest of the tewn. owing to the small
amount expended on New Harbor ana
Pemaauid Point division | am not sur
prised to find men in New Harbor
complaining, but what they failed to
get. South Bristol secured. Now they
submitted in evidence the testimony
of 9 man IN an adjoining town who
made an examination of the roads,
testifying that the Neck road, so
called, which goes along the peninsu-
lar approaching South Bristol and
Christmas Cove was practically impas-
sable. that there was sheer drop of
two feet from bridge into mud hole,
which made passage, even on loot,
dangerous, that the hill from the post
office toward the Summit House. was
So wave washed, rutted and siding
that Il was dangerous for horses and
carriages 10 pass and no automobile
would be ~driyen over it q second time.
Now, as assrnatter Of fact an automo-
bile containing six : passengers was
driven, late IN August, over that
bridge made that two-foot leap, ne2o-
tiated that hill on second gear at not
less than Is to 90 miles an hour AS no
car will make that hill on second gear
at less rate of speed and no inconven-
ienee was suffered, in fact, it was not
noted that the road was unusually bad.
do not mean to be understood by this
that the road was good, IN fact, |
would be understood to state that the
roads were generally not good any
where in Bristol, or Damariscotta, or
in Pscataquis county, or in Lincoln
county or Knox county, over which
cars were driven, last summer. But l
do want ii understood that the road
in South Bristol was not worse than
the road elsewhere in town. Special
emphasis was put upon this gentle
mans testimony on one road which he
was pleased to call The Neck. upon
WHICH tlt iodiih stSpitt Sic" III oN'iiN''
growing, when as a matter of fact, he
was describing a. private way lead
ing to a farmhouse and COW pasture.
Now gentlemen in view of the evil
dence as cited, do you find a good and
sufficient reason upon which to grant
a division of the town?
A further reason was that relating
to schools. AS the common schools or
grade schools are under the direct SUI
peryision and supported by the State
there appeared to be no controversy.
but the question of High schools APP
peared as the chief bone of conten-
ton. BY referring to your map, you
find that the point at the head OF
Johns bay, or Johns river, the town
of Pemaquid Falls where the High
school building is located. From
Christmas Cove by the way of land
around the head waters of this point
il is 10 miles but as there are few ex-
cept summer cottagers living there, 1t
is only fair TO use the distance from
South Bristol, which is nine miles. The
distance from Pemaquid Point to the
school is four miles, New Harbor, two
and a half miles, Old Pemaquid two