The Feilding Star THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1889. The Onepuhi Bridge

Feilding Star, Volume X, Issue 109, 21 March 1889, Page 2

The Feilding Star THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1889. The Onepuhi Bridge

In a Wangauui paper vre observe that the Engineer of the Raugitikei County Council is calling for tenders to put an additional span in the Onepuhi bridge across the Rangitilcei river. Now as the ratepayers on this side of the river, in the Manchester Block, will have to bear nearly one half of the probable cost of this work, it seems singular to us that they should not be directly informed through a journal circulating among them, that this work was open for tender. Ab they will have to pay for it they might be asked to share the plunder, to say the least of it. Perhaps we are a little hasty when we say they will have to pay for this work because, in point of fact, the Manchester Road Board has not at the present time a single penny to its credit in the Bank, which can be fooled away on the job. Whoever gets the contract cannot lose anything because he will of course look first to the Banjriiakei Council, which is in funds, for payment, and the latter will have to look to the Manchester Road Board for a refund of the alleged share then due by the latter. It was mooted at a recent meeting of the Manchester Road Board that the Government would be invited to allot the proportion of the liability of each district, according to population and rates, but that has not yet been done, or if it has the figures have not been disclosed. We have already protested against the continual drain on the Manchester Road District to keep open this bridge which is only of use to a few Maories, and would urge on the ratepayers, who are being bled so uselessly, to lift up their voices against the injustice.