MANCHESTER ROAD BOARD.

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 113, 24 April 1888, Page 2

MANCHESTER ROAD BOARD.

TO THK EDITOR OF THE STAB. Sir,— Allow me to deal with Mr Pleasants' " corrections" of my letter. My statement that the Manchester Corporation charged the same price for their land, irrespective of roads or bridges, is quite borne out by his first sentence. Purchasers at second hand don't enter into the question. The possible ratea which land may have to bear is ac much a matter of calculation for the purchaser as any other point, and if a man finds he has paid too much for his land it is no reason he should in coßsequence whine against any additional rates necessary to the advancement of the district. It is not likely to have much effect if he does. I don't know which is " Upper Taonui's" road; why could Mr Pleasante not have told us who did pay f«r it. The money I referred to as having made some roads in Upper Taonui and none in the lower part of the ward was the £18,000 borrowed, I think under the District Roads Act, for which there was a speoial rate of one penny and one-sixth levied over the entire Manchester District, and I am under the impression that Mr Pleasants' two boundary roads— the Taonui and Spur roads, as well ac the Valley road -were made out of that loan. The piece of formation Mr Pleasants refers to may he the only ratgmoneys so spent in Uppor Tmmni, but his short membership of :lie MfiC^hrsler Road "Board should have tuught him' that a larsre proportion of the rates hava :ie*n swallowed up in maintenance, the Feed-ing-Ashhurst road being a big drain. The roads in Lower Taonui, which ifr " Pleasants enumerates as " "having -been"' made out af tho general rates, are*—^(i) ' - The Aoranjii-Bunuythorpe,— As far fcrf * " • can ascertain there never waa a pem^r <>£■.:.:-. the general rates laid Ollt On thisTOid" "• Thuro, was.^iH) span t .hy. tfcbe Cowtr "' Council, and later on £100 andj&l 3a to . ,»

the Maaawatu Road Board. (2) Nannestead's line. — I believe the entire Manchester District enjoys the privilege oi subscribing to this work. (3) The Bun-nythorpe-Ashhurst road may have been made out of general rates, but therein not enough of it to make a fuss about. Air Pleasuufcs says ihe does. not interfere "with the main question '$t 1880,6 in my idtter, I fail to see that he affects the side issues either. He asserts dogmatically that the ratepayers in the lower part oi No. 5 ward have no grievance. lam mot oue of them, but I think they have, and ■a very serious one too,, and am quite certain that the ratepayere of the Manawatu Road Board here are suffering from an injustice, that the word grievance is altogether too mild to describe, bat one thing I am satisfied about, and that is they "will not suffer from it much longer. I look upon theAorangi-Bannythorpe road as the tnest important road in the "ward, as affecting the prosperity of the centre of the Manchester Block— Feilding. It is the only one the non-completion of which •could drive trade and money directly into the rival township, and I maintain that a large and prosperous population down Bunnythorpe way is becoming ulieaated owing to the impossibility of -communication with the township,' aud a much graver consideration for the Manchester Road Board I can't well imagine. May I ask in conclusion, is Mr Pleasants responsible for the letter that appeared over the signature of /'Upper Taonui?"— lam, &c, .:. ■ G. Bevington Jokes.