AN UNBRIDGED RIVER.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 787, 9 April 1910, Page 3

AN UNBRIDGED RIVER.

POSITION OF OHUBA SETTLERS. (By Telegraph.—Special OorreSDondeiiU Taumarunui, April 8. ' Taumarunui residents and Ohura settlers are indignant at tie continued delay of the Government in the ere<> tion of the Ongarue Eiver bridge.: The proposed structure, which is to' be' erected within a few chains of the '. town, will' afford an outlet for settlers upon 6bme fifty thousand acres of en? dowment land- At the present time tho settlers risk the lives of their stock, which have to be sworn over the bridgeless river. Sheep have been lost frequently, and .in. the. winter, time.-it ;is. maintained that the river is extremely, dangerous for anybody to cross. Settlers and residents openly charge the Government with a breach •;of 'agreement It is stated that the bridge was promised. three: years ..ago, when the; land was first placed the market, and that the settlers-are actually being .loaded for its construction', but nothing has;.been done.' As a;,res,ult, ,the.whole of--the Ohura; aUstrictaiibeing retarded' in.the way of injustice continues to be'peiipetrated on a progressive town. :• *; ", ■•"■■•-. The Government wish Taumarunui ta find £150 towards tho .cost of the. structure, and''l the Ohura County .Council to pay for the 'engineer's fees. It ia pointed but, however, - that the i total annual rents from Taumarunui amount, to £250. This sum is .utterly "inadequate to keep the town in a propel state, and as the land is leasehold ria money can bo borrowed. The Government will, not lend the town any money and it will, not build its. promise? bridge, for, which for some considerabk time'now £1000 has been placed upon, the Estimates. The. Ohura settlers aw paying 275. 6d. per acre for their pnv perties, and although some of them re« side within,two.mues of. Tamiarunui they have no roads—only ,pack-horse tracks. . The other day Mrs. Garlick, wife of an Ohura settler, who has been practically a prisoner for three years on his section, rode on horseback to the place at the risk of her life. Settlera residing further back- within thirteen miles of Taumarunui, and unable to' reach it when the river is, too high, have to travel thirty, miles to Onga'im-'