THE COUNTRY ROADS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume I, Issue 33, 2 December 1843, Page 2

THE COUNTRY ROADS.

There is not another subject connected with this Colonj on which more frequent complaints are made to us than the above, and there is in reality nothing of greater importance to the advancement of the Colony and the comforts of the settlers generally than the proper laying out and making of roads. "Without a road to the market, the labour of the agriculturist is vainly thrown away. A farm in our native land which has not tho convenience of a road to the church and the mill is not deemed worth the occupying. Why it should be expected that matters should be different in this Colony we cannot pretend to say, but certain it is that our present Surveyor General is not of this opinion, if we can judge by his magement of this most essential branch of his department. The late Surveyor General lias been accused of cherishing too strong an affection for curves, circles, and crescents, and he has been justly accused of having through this infatuation destroyed the streets of our metropolis. But Mr. Mathew's curves have not been a tenth part so injurious to the Colony as Mr. Ligar's straight lines. Mr/Mathew erred not from laziness, or a desire to save his own time, bnt from a fanciful sort of crotchet which every man is at some time of his life apt to take into his head. Mr,. Ligar again has erred from sheer laziness, he has cursed the country with impassable roads, just because it is easier to lay out a square block of land than an irregular figure. Ho marks his straight line on the map of a certain portion of country, laying out his farms on each side, this straight line is the road, no matter what opposes it, river, gulley, or mountain. — Probably Mr. Ligar was educated in the school of the ideal philosophers, a mountain or a ravine has no existence in his highly mathematical imagination. Tho poor settler who purchases his farms has however the, misery and misfortune to discover th.at they have a real- and a substantial existence. We are sorry to b.e obliged to find fault with the Surveyor General, but we hare satisfied ourselves of his utter disregard to this important subject. We cannot suppose

hat be is ignorant of the proper method of . «in«r out roads, and he is therefore the more fl blame if he knowingly destroy the Colony. p e shall again take up the subject of the ds tfhen the new Governor arrives ; mean[me W publish the following letter from uany received on. the aamo subject: — Auckland, November 30, 1843. Sia,— Knowing your anxiety to remedy all abuses, beg to call your attention to the careless manner in hich the Country Lands, or rather the Roads are laid at< Our Surveyors are in the habit of taking the earings of certain hills or mountains, and then withBtpaying any respect to gullies, rivers, or high ranges, „ o ff farms of 60, 80 or 100 acres in square blocks, ajin&not the least respect to the roads. Of all' things in a new Colony the Roads are of the reatest, and should be, of the first consequence ; our ettlers have many difficulties to contend with, the igh price of lands, &c. Look at those on the imaki, at Epsom, and other districts, and without ,ttery a more industrious class of Setters I am sure mid not in any country be found ; look then at the oads laid out to their farm's, they are as carelessly id out as our Town. One Road runti over Mount den and stops at the Three King* near Mr. Cooper's , m; I cannot describe the Roads near the Tamaki, ey are as badly laid out as possible to be, to the moyance of the purchasers. If as labour is cheap, the Surveyor General would nd out his Surveyors and lay out proper Roads ta ose districts now advertized for sale, or else omit oads altogether, and make a clause in the agreement Sale, reserving to Government the right of hereter making roads thro' any farm sold, I am sure would greatly serve the intending purchasers. If imething of this kind is not done, in a few years it ill coat the different parishes more than the original irchase of the lands, to repurchase and lay out ailabe ßoad*. Leaving this subject in your hands, I am, &c, &c, A LOOKER ON. o the Editor of the 1 "Southern Cross." J