The Mortgages on the Northam Parish Rates: To the Editor of the Bideford Gazette: Sir, – As one who regrets the establishment of the Northam Local Board, allow me, through the medium of your earliest to thank Mr. Pynsent for his very able and opportune letter on the mortgaging of the parish rates, Had the board, Mr. Pynsent says, confined its attention to sanitary matters, it might have been a blessing; but its tendency at present is certainly opposed to the interests of the ratepayers, inasmuch as instead of confining its attention to that for which it was it established it is positively borrowing and expending large sums of money for the improvement of speculations in which the ratepayers are not in the least interested, and from which they derive no benefit.
My object however, in writing is to point out an omission in Mr. Pynsent’s letter. Possibly he may have forgotten it. It is that at the first inquiry, when the Government Inspector was induced to advise the Secretary of State to sanction the borrowing of money for these Westward Ho! improvements, it was urged by several advocates that the rateable value of the district would in twelve months be double what it is now, although nearly two years have elapsed. The rateable value has not increased to that extent, nor has anything like the number of people been here that the Inspector was led to believe. It was evidently an exaggeration if not a trick, and it was singular that no reference was made to it in Mr. Pynsent’s capital letter, for which he deserves the thanks of every ratepayer in the parish. Yours very obediently: A Northamite: Northam Nov. 4th: …
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Referenced
GRO0835 Hennock: Thomas Pynsent: 1808 – 1887