LITTLE RIVER ROAD MAKING.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 307, 27 June 1879, Page 2

LITTLE RIVER ROAD MAKING.

To the Editor of the Akaroa Mail.

Sir, —A " Resuscitated Stump " in your issue of Friday last gives a long letter which is calculated to excite some wonderment, so manifold and far-fetched are the subjects of .which he treats, and so peculiar his manner of treatment. If he be a resident of Little River, your readers may arrive at the conclusion that his letter itself affords some evidence to what he professes to call his " discovery " in relation to the deleterious influence of the Little River atmosphere upon the mental powers; for there must be some very eccentric influence at work in the cranium that compounded such hoity-toity sentences as are to be found in his letter. As instances, take the one beginning "Angels may weep," and the- concluding one. Jargon such as this may be fit for a mysterious banshee or a Maori Te Whiti, but hardly implies sound mental organisation. But leaving such visionary flights to the banshee tribe, I will aim as a ratepayer to write of what concerns me and other ratepaj'ers here. In tbe first place, I may say that the making of roads here at all had been so long postponed that when a beginning was made there "was every disposition to be pleased, and none to complain. But when tenders were called for the work specifications were provided as to the manner in which the work should be done; but no efficient precautions were taken to ensure the specifications being complied with. This was generally known, and hence-the letters of ''Grubum" and "Hidden Stump," which were but an expression of the general feeling in the matter and a protest against'the" absence of supervision on the part of the Road Board. It is also very well known that this absence of effective supervision is not a singular instance, as in point, but a common thing, the Mount Bossu road constituting a very glaring instance of it. This state of things the ratepayers condemn, and will put an end to, as it results in a great waste of money. Many entertain the opinion that the division of the district would be the best remedy for it, as in that case the ratepayers at Little River would exercise ipore direct control over their funds and; the works in progress in their locality, and the same would be the case with the ratepayers at the Tai Tapu, and the Board would, not be able to play off one end of the district against the other as they are in the habit of doing when it suits their purpose. '' If the-district were divided, such a state of things as is now existing in the Port Levy Valley would never have existed at all. This valley, said to be the largest here, is all freehold, parts of it having been purchased more than twenty years ago, and the Board have at last formed a part of the main road leading through it. Now the part of this road, formed or in process ef formation, crosses the river that flows through the valley five | times. The width of the river would be not less generally than 12 feet, and the depth of the water during winter floods often more than 4 feet, and yet at no one of the crossings is there bridge or culvert provided. The result is that the settlers in the valley arc not unfrcquently debarred from proceeding to their respective occupations, while their children and wives can neither reach school nor church. They and others memorialized the Board on the subject, but that august body resolved that as, in their memorial, the memorialists had not shown in what way the necessity for wading through the river could be avoided, therefore no remedy could be applied ! Doubtless the memorialists gave the Board credit for the possession of knowledge sufficient to enable them to perceive that bridges or culverts were all that was required—thus the usefulness of the road is minimised. Had the Board been residents of Little River, the foregoing resolve of theirs, and the remarkable grounds on which it was based, would together have given a further coloring of probability to " Resusitated Stump's " allegation relating to the effects of tho atmosphere of that place upon the mental powers ; but unfortunately for the credit of the discovery claimed to have been made, this is not the case. Finally, a word about "Sawdust."

I *'Resuscitated Stump" has raised it to empyrean heights, but to no practical purEose. It must come down again, though ebe smothered in its fall. For. a long time past this substance has been a nuisance to the place, and as time goes on the evil increases in magnitude. Medical men who have visited us professionally, state that it poisons the streams and those who drink from them, even to the death; and that it poisons; the atmosphere also, which anyone having, a nose can well testify to. This therefore is a very grave matter, and if our County Council has no power to deal with it, the Government should be memorialized to confer such power upon it, or upon some other local body. The continued existence of such a state of things is productive of much material injury, and reflects discredit upon the inhabitants.—l am, _c, RATEPAYER. Little River, June 24.