AN URGENT WORK

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 262, 1 August 1919, Page 6

AN URGENT WORK

So fiir as the. improvement of the 'JUnnitaka road is concerned, the conference of local body representatives which met yesterday reached fairly definite results. As an outcome oi the conference, local authorities whose territory lies on this side of the range will bo invited individually to concur in the proposal put forward by the YA'airavapa local bodies, that is to say, that the various local bodies concerned should agree to provide fifty per cent, of the cost of improvingthe road, and that the Government should be asked to pay the remaining fifty per cent. As yet some of the local authorities on this side of the hill have shown themselves less willing than those of the Wairarapa to incur the necessary expenditure, and _ one or two of them yesterday raised the plea of poverty. The extreme urgency of the work is so plainly evident, however, that there should be no thought of persisting in such an attitude. The case is essentially one for prompt action. One or two delegates yesterday laid due emphasis on the fact that if the road is neglected much longer it will become absolutely impassable. Agreeing amongst themselves, the local .bodies should hav-> little difficulty in presenting such a case to the Government as it would be unable to ignore or treat lightly. The great importance oi the Rimutaka road as a provincial and natioiial highway is, of course, much accentuated by the existing state of the railway into the Wairarapa, but even if the railway were in all respects efficient {he road would be an immensely important transport route, and the extent, to which it is to be. improved ought to be determined accordingly. In its present condition it is unfit 'lo_ carry light traffic, much less the increasing volume of heavy traffic it is actually called upon to bear. The City Council, presumably, will readily co-operate in the improvement of the road and undertake to bear a fair share of the outlay involved. As to the proportion of the necessary outlay the Government is asked to meet no question should arise, since Defence Department traffic is very largely responsible for the existing condition of the road. (■