The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, NOV. 30, 1886. Road v. Railway

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 64, 30 November 1886, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, NOV. 30, 1886. Road v. Railway

The train arrangements which will come into force to-morrow have met the condemnation of every journal published on the coast from Foxton to Taranaki. We have no intention today of pointing out the want of proper consideration that has been shown for the convenience of the settlers residing between Longburn and Wanganui, whose interests have apparently been sacrificed for the supposed benefits to be derived from rapid communication between Wellington and Auckland. We desire to point out how necessary it now is for every ratepayer in the Manchester Boad District and the Borough of Feilding, to give their most earnest support towards the erection of a traffic bridge over the Oroua at Aorangi, and the construction of a good metal road to Bunnythorpe, in order that they may be, by their own act, independent of the railway between Palmerston and Feilding. Hitherto many of them have been able to use the trains for the purpose of obtaining supplies at these towns* as the time table was in every way suitable for them to go and return at convenient hours. All this is now at an end. Settlers will for the future have to depend entirely on themselves to provide means of locomotion to that township where they do their business, and as horse flesh is cheap and food abundant, they will experience no difficulty once the river is spanned by a bridge, and all danger of accident from floods removed. To show how little extra the ratepayers will be taxed we instance the following case : A burgess pays now on the rateable value of his pioperty which is, say £10 per annum — rental value; 10s ordinary rate, 10s loan rate, and lOd library rate, making altogether 20s lOd a year on the rental value. Now, with the addition of the proposed bridge rate of l£d in the said rental of £10 — which will amount to Is 3d, he will have to pay altogether 22s Id — it is worth the money if only as a preventative against loas of human life by drowning in the river. We do not believe there are twenty ratepayers in the Borough who will have to contribute 10s a year for the extra rate. This bridge and road will be one of the greatest boons to both Feilding and Palmerston. It will also enable many settlers between the two townships to dispose of their produce far more profitably than ever they have been able to do before. The meeting of the burgesses to discuss the subject of the loan for the bridge, as required by law, will be held on Tuesday, the 7th of December, when an opportunity will be given of obtaining information on any points which may at present be obscure to the ratepayers.