Question of Gates.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 1007, 28 September 1903, Page 3

Question of Gates.

A meeting of the Ngatapa Road Board was held on Saturday to discuss a petition from Wharekopao settlers. Present: Messrs Chambers (chairman) Debbie, Sherrill, and Hutchinson. Somo formal business having been disposed of, the petition was read, requesting tho removal of gates on the Ngatapa-Wharekopae road; also correspondence from Messrs Steelo and Morice, objecting to the removal of the gatos. Mr McCutchan, representing tho signatories to the petition, being called on, requested permission to ask Mr iSteele a few questions. The Chairman : No, you had better confine yourself to making a statement.

Mr McCutchan ; Then, sir, I will state that all the signatories to the petition are subscribers to the loan. Mr Steele is not with us in the loan, as he oxplains that he is throwing in his lot with those in the Hangaroa riding. Mr Steele under his £4OOO loan is providing himself with an open road to Gisborne via Hangaroa; his fellowsettlers in Tahora are only trying to , secure for themselves the same benefit via Wharekopae. Why should Mr Steele try and prevent them ? Mr Steele : I am only too willing to answer any questions. Mr McCutchan: But I am not permitted to ask them. I say, Mr Chairman, that this is a question of private interests versus public rights. The Chairman : I will not permit you to make that statement. Mr McCutchan : Then am I to understand that the signatories to the petition have no public right in this matter ? Mr Williamson will surely allow that no one citizen should deny to his neighbor those rights and privileges which he claims as a right for himself. If Mr Williamson before he could drive his stock along the King’s highway were obliged first to give, say, Mr Watson notice, would he not feel it irksome ? If Mr Williamson were a Tahora settler ho would have to ride (and a Tahora settler has ridden) 23 miles to give the manager of Ngatapa station notice that ho purposed driving stock on the road next day ? If Mr Williamson when driving up to Gisborne were obliged to open and shut 14 gates en route he would not, 1 fool assured, be wearing a pleasant smile when he reached his destination. If “New Yoar ” bolted at the fifth gate and smashed his landau, who would compensate him ? If the petitioners are paying the rates and customs of the country, if, as pioneers, they are fulfilling their duty, why should they not have equal rights with their fellow citizens ? If Mr Williamson has an open road to Gisborne, why should not they also? Seeing that the petitioners have raised a loan of £IOO towards making this road, is it not only fair and reasonable that they should be allowed the right of free use without having to ask any man’s permission ? But if Mr Steele is to be believed these are roally benefits, and no disadvantages exist. Sir, let mo say in conclusion that life in these back blocks is difficult enough, the hardships which must be endured are already ample. In two seasons five men have been carried out over rough ridges and flooded rivors—three to tho hospital and two to tho cemetery. Perhaps this does not concorn tho question, but it does concern those who are compelled to live under such circumstances, and that having contributed their quota towards making a road to their primitive homes, it concovns them to know it is theirs to use “ whenever they will.” But as things stand at present they cannot legally do so without giving Mr Williamson or his appointee 24 I hours’ notice. Mr Steele, on rising, said that ho was surprised at tho personal attack made on him by Mr McCutchan. He never wished or intended to do his neighbors an injury, on tho contrary, ho had always endeavored to render them what assistance he could. Ho was a back settler also, and used this road, and knew it for one of tho best driving roads in tho district. Ho contended that the petitioners were standing in their own light. If the road wore fenced they would be confined to a narrow muddy formation, impassable in winter for either waggon or stock, whereas with an unfenced road they had a wido grazing area as they travelled. Theso were undoubted benofits, and if Ngatapa would improve tho condition of tho gate the seniors had everything they could reasonably oxpect. Mr McCutchan asserts that because I am not within tho special rating aroa therefore I have no say. I submit, sir, that I am a ratepayer and a settler, and am using tho Wharekopae road as much as anyone. Mr McCutchan might have told you that although I was rating myself in tho Hangaroa ridiDg for another road I was willing if they thought I should do so to allow myself to bo rated for the Wharekopae road also. Mr McCutchan ; That is so. I advised you not. Mr Steele : But even if the other road were available to-morrow I would use the Wharekopae road for stock. Mr Williamson being called on said : I have yet to learn what are the grievances of the petitioners. Up tho coast and down tho coast there are gates on roads where tho traffic is ten times greater than on the Ngatapa road, and wo hear no objections, oven where the mail coach travels. Mr McCutchan spoke of me as a rich squatter sitting on velvet. I wish it were true; if a big property mortgaged constitutes wealth then I ought

to bo satisfied. But I am told that on tbo road through Mr MeCutchan’s place and on through the land owned by the other petitioners there are nine gates, and I am told that they are roughly constructed and hung in a primitive fashion. Mr Sherratt is my authority. Is it not reasonable that these gates should be called in question ? Mr McCutchan (interjecting) : Our gates are legally constructed and erected, and there are only two. Mr Williamson, continuing: And Mr McCutchan speaks as if he and the others raised the £IOOO loan, whereas two-fiftli3 are contributed by Ngatapa station. .Mr McCutchan: Only because you were outvoted and all the money is being spent on tho road through your property. Tho Chairman: Order, please! Mr Williamson : Then, again, much is made out of this alleged cutting out of cattle on the road.

Mr Kingston here explained it as of no consequence. Mr Williamson passed on to remark that there was an out-shepherd at Wharekopae, within four miles of Mr McCutchan’s, to whom notice re stock movements might bo given, and who would clear tho road. He might add that an undertaking was given to the Tahora settlers (through his solicitor) that the gates would be put in order, but he understood that in any case this petition was coming forward, which, if successful would necessitate the removal of all the gates. Mr McCutchan, replying, said that Mr Steele’s contention that if the road wero fenced they would lose grazing benefits as theytra veiled stock was contrary to experience, because they all knew that on back roads and byeroads there was feed when main roads wero stripped. As to the road being rendered impassable in winter if fenced, why, of course the traffic of the whole country was confined to fenced roads. It were better, in his opinion, that the legitimate traffic on I the Ngatapa road should be confined | to the chain limit, rather than that 40,000 sheep and 4000 cattle be allowed to wander up and down aimlessly all the year round; and he ventured to think that if the County Engineer (or other competent authority) were consulted on the whole question of gates on roads from the point of view of County finance, he would decide for an open thoroughfare. The witnesses pro and con having retired, the Board resolved : “ That, after hearing the evidence submitted by both sides, the Board does not feel justified in removing the gates; that the owners of .Ngatapa station be given notice to erect up-to-date swing-gates, and that the gateways must be kept dry,”