Post-office was £2,000 a year, while its expenses were only £280, thus giving the authorities a large revenue. In laying these matters before the Council he asked whether he ought to be treated with contempt. The question now was whether he should go to the Postmaster-General or not? The Council had frequently said they had the interest of the West Ward at heart. He thought then, they would give some proof of their sincerity by uniting for the common prosperity of the two towns. He left these remarks with the Council, and he believed the members would treat the question as men of business, as men of uprightness, and as men of independence. [Great applause].
Interruptions and Personalities. During the remainder of the discussion (says the Hastings News) the remarks of the speaker were of a greatly animated character, but less to the point, more personal, with frequent interruptions and expressions of feelings among the members generally.
Coun. Winter believed that a great evil existed in the postal arrangements and had endeavoured to work out a course that would tend to get the anomally(sic) altered, but he could not throw himself into the course adopted by Messrs. Ginner and Ross. If they had a case to go before the Postmaster-General, let them go and put it before him fairly. Mr. Gausden was an honourable man, whom, he thought, would do nothing that would not be creditable to himself and the borough. He believed that the evil was so great that it would work its own way, irrespective of what the deputation might say or do. That, however, did not alter his view upon the present motion, and he should certainly vote against it, because he thought the committee ought to have gone to the Postmaster-General when an opportunity was given them. If they had done so, perhaps the question would now have been settled, instead of which he believed it was irretrievably lost. After condemning the revival of East and West, Mr. Winter expressed his belief that the present agitation had been promoted by the Post Office authorities themselves, who found the evil grow from bad to worse, and were making cat’s paw of the Council, so that when the change was made they might say the Council had petitioned for it. [Rather should Mr. Winter have said that the East Ward Councillors had been for years, endeavouring to make a “cat’s paw” of the Postal authorities by demanding, as well as imploring, by means of petitions and deputations a change in the postal arrangements, whilst the real object was to get the name -
