Hokitika guardian & Evening star WEDNESDAY. JAN. 24. 1917 SOUTHERN WANTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 January 1917, Page 2

Hokitika guardian & Evening star WEDNESDAY. JAN. 24. 1917 SOUTHERN WANTS.

The announcement of the coming of the Hon Minister of Public Works to Westland is good reading. It is now a question of making the most of tha visit. Usually Ministerial visits are remarkable for the velocity of their flight. They are invariably in a hurry. What little they see they scamper over, while they leave most of the country untouched. In South Westland we have the great sheet anchor to the future prosperity of Westland, yot that territory is invariably ignored by visiting Ministers. We hope every effort will be made to induce Mr Fraser to spend all the time he ean in the South. It is to be feared that he will not face the horseback ride south of the Wa>ho. This is to be regretted for at the point referred to we have the beginning of a stretch of country of great promise te which reference was made in this column last Saturday. Howevor, if Mr Fraser will only make the acquaintance of the district and the people between Ross and the Waiho, he wi>l accomplish something and learn not a little. It is a district which will stand inspection, and if the Minister has an eye to th 9 possibilities of the country with suitable facilities for aocese, he will appreciate the need of extending a helping baud and doing a great deal to assist the back blocks of Westland. Time was when the Government of the conntry put the back blocks ia the fore-front in the matter of public works assistance, There ia need for revival of the policy and Mr Fraser might well hit out on those lines. The outstanding want for the south iB bridges, and more bridges. There are a succession of livers, and Westland requires the same treatment metad out to it as more fortunate places in the Dominion where the authorities have carried through all bridging required with very 1 tile outside pressureHere, although promises have been made, the rivers are still bridge)e3?, and settlement is hampered and progress checked as a result. A visitor from Canterbury to South Westland last week marvelled at what he saw. He was surprised to find such a flue stretch of country on this much maligned West Coast. He, too, spoke of the want of bridges, remarking that on the East Coast every stream was bridged, thus enabling safe and speedy traffio and transport to be maintained at all time?. The Hon Mr Fraser can be confronted with a formidable request for bridges in the south, and it is to ba hoped that out of the projected visit something definite and final *ill result in regard to the bridging of the Mikonui river. There is also the question o! expending TOtes for bridges in the south

which are on the Estimates bat which votes remain unexpended. There is, too, the large question of extending the railway, a matter ou which Mr Fraser should be able to speak interestingly, because it was under his regime of Minister of Public Works that the vote for this work was quietly (not to use a harsher term) dropped out of the Appropriations! Mr Fraser owes the community soma reasonable explanation on this point. There are large questions in the south awaiting his attention, and we hope the visit > will not be -the colorless incident it has been in the past.