BACKBLOCKS ROADS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 813, 10 May 1910, Page 11

BACKBLOCKS ROADS.

THE GOVERNMENT AKD THE

'SETTLER.

TIRED OF WAITING.

In_ city platform speeolica Cabinet Ministers 1 loudly proclaim tlio great benefit oonferred on the country districts by tlio Government in banding owr grants for roads to local bodies, and tho unthinking city elector applauds. Tho pioneers at' the frontiers of settlements have a different story to tell, and their opinion is voiced by Mr. H. H. Babbago, of Kaivhia. Ho says:— "I notice that tho Hon. R. M'Kenzis says there is general satisfaction, at tho expenditure of graaits for roads beine handed over to local bodies. Thore would bo if the moneys as voted were banded over, for then wo might get something dono, instead of having tho hopeless state of things as at prosent in tho Kawhia County. About £8000 was placed on the Estimates, but Cabinet only authorised about £3000. When tho County Councif wero notified and asked to expend it, thoy refused, and rightly, too, for thoy had to prepare plans, etc., send' them to Wellington to bo approved by Cabinet, and oxpend tho money by tho end of March, or else tho vote lapsed, and thoy would have the exponse of preparing plana for nothing. I consider the Government wore trying to make them tho scapegoats for tho small amount, authorised. Again, Mr. M'Kenzio says tlio votes for roads adopted last session have all been authorised, and tho amount expended has given general satisfaction. Mr. M'KciLzio evidently thought wo backblockers would not seo this, as he would find out whether wo were satisfied if ho came through this district. I do not know of a satisfied settlor in tho whole district. Wo havo another winter of packing before us, after ten years of it, and only a few miles from Kawhia Harbour. 1 will tako my own road, the Awaroa-Wahoe as an oxamplo. The sum placed on tho Estimates for this road was £2200 and Cabinet has authorised a paltry £470, and no work has been started.- Ten years ago wo took up the land, and Mr. Seddon told us wo would havo a road in two years. In the moantimo wo. had to pack up the riverbed, through bush tracks, and we had to cut a bush track for eight miles to get sheep in, losing in ono mob 260 out of 460 sheep. It was three years before a start was made with a six-foot track, and six years beforo it reached my placo, a. distance of soven and a half miles, and there is half a milo at the top end still unformed to connect the road to the railway, while one creek, about a mile from tho launch landing, over which tho settlers havo erected nearly a dozen temporary bridges, is still unbridged. 'How long?' is the cry of tho backblock settlor. Now, at tho end of ten years, wo have five miles of formed dray road, except that every half mile or milo a piece of six-foot track has been loft, so that we cannot use it, where! the work was stopped last year.