Murupara Citizens Claim Dust Positive Menace To Food In Summer

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 92, 24 October 1947, Page 5

Murupara Citizens Claim Dust Positive Menace To Food In Summer

A strong plea for support in urging the tar sealing of the section of the main highway that runs through the township of Murupara was made by Mr E. A. Dykstra, president of the Murupara branch of the Whakatane Chamber of Commerce, in welcoming visiting M’s P. last Sunday. He said dust raised by logging trucks in the summer was a positive menace, drifting thickly into all the township’s food shops. He claimed it was impossible at times in his milk bar to tell whether one was drinking milk or mud. Mr Dykstra sought support for the speeding up of land sub-division for business purposes. He said a garage properitor was prepared to bring £7,000 worth of workshop equipment into Murupara to service the district’s vehicles which now had to be sent either to Whakatane or Rotorua, but the project had had to be shelved. Another matter introduced was the need for a public hall. Murupara had no recreational facilities, and no Church. The only building available for public gatherings was the Maori meeting house, and that was always likely to be needed by the Maori people themselves at short notice, so that long-standing arrangements were often upset. Concrete blocks to build the hall had been in the town since last January, but Government restrictions were holding that project up also.

Mr W. Sullivan recommended local citizens to renew their representations, which would have his support.