A MINISTER'S TOUR.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1503, 27 July 1912, Page 4

A MINISTER'S TOUR.

PIONEERS AND THEIR ROADS. Tho Hon.. W. Fraser (Minister for Pub-' lie Works) who returned on Thursday from an official visit to Northern Tara'litiki, told a reporter yesterday that ho had been, very much imp«ssed by the character of the country. Tho land" round about To Kuiti had great possibilities in front of it. Roads were tho trouble. The district roads were about as bad as they, could be. Their 6t«te woe inconceivable to anybody who had never seen them. Within a reasonable distance of To Kuiti, the Minister remarked, -unlimited quantities of limestone metal—tho very best kind of metal—could bo obtained,! but so far tho reading problem remained .unsolved. It was imperative that the Government in co-operation with tho local bodies, should deviso some better methods of reading tho country he had just visited and other settlements. Strenuous, efforts must bo made-,to remody the present stato of tho roads.

"One thing is evident," Mr. Frnsor remarked, "the main thing to do is'to construct tlio arterial roads. This must be done before money is spent on branch ronilg. Take the case of ecttlers who are. established thirty miles or more from To Kuiti. What is tlio uso of giving men so placed a few miles of metalled branch road, leading to a main highway., if they cannot travel on the highway when they get to it?" Speaking of the difficulties that settlers have- to overcome Mr. Frascr said that in some parts of the district ho had just visited farmers carried their cream in front of them on the saddle- over eoino wiles of country to a point at which thn cream was collected and from which it was carried, on pack-horses, over a distance of 15 miles to the nearest place from which it could he sent bv railway to the factory. This, said Mr. Fraser, would give some idea of what these men had to do to enable them to earn enough to pay for their land and to live. Of the settlers themselves with whom he camo in contact, the Minister spoko in' terms of unstinted praise. "Thero are a lot of young fellows' up there," he said, "of as fine a stamp, I am snr/- as you will find anywhoro in New Zealand,' ,