KIRIKIRI BRIDGE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4317, 14 September 1921, Page 2

KIRIKIRI BRIDGE.

Sjr, —I was pleased to see by your report of last Saturday’s meeting at Ngatea that Cr -W..^G. ; Hayward had the courage and sound commonsense to make it gs plain as courtesy to the Thames guests would permit, that he was not in favour of proceeding with an expensive bi idge, costing probably from- £50,000 to £75,000, unless and until good roads were provided .on the Hauraki Plains. For his outspoken and practical views on these subjects, Cr. Hayward is deserving of the goodwill of every ratepayer on the Plains. When the'real motive and driving force behind the Kirikiri' bridge proposal are analysed it is easy to perceive that Pollen Street (Thames) is the real factor. It is passing strange how any level-headed farmer could knowingly favour the .taking on of such an enormous liability merely for the sake of being able to shop in Thames. Shopping is all the whole thing amounts to, for certainly the bridge is not wanted' as a stock route, there being no freezing works or large saleyards at Tham.es. The fact of the matter is .that Thames is a dead-end, and not a centre for -the Plains or anywhere else, except for tfce virgin hills of a portion of the Coromandel Peninsula. One must admire the acumen of - the business men of Thames'for their enterprise, but I hope the settlers of the Plains are not going ,to be such fools as to play into the hands of a coterie of pushful shopkeepers—and pay for the doubtful privilege I

The business men of Thames see the rising dawn of the inevitable day when the Paeroa-Pokenp railway will be an accomplished fact, when the residents of .the Plains will travel frequently by rail and motor road to Auckland, and to the railway junction of Paeroa ;. they realise that a good harbour and a bridge across the Waihou River are their sole means of economic salvation*, and to that end they are striving with might and main, rightly andmecessarily so ; but they have themselves to consider, and we have ourselves to gua»d. Can any settler of the Plains stand up and say that, apart from Thames influence —brought to bear in many insidi’ous ways—there would ever have been any agitation for a bridge at Kirikiri ? Certainly not b ’

However, I trust that some more facile pen than mine will trke up this subject, and endeav mr to open the eyes of my fellow farmers to the dangerous financial precipice they are so apathetically standing on the brink of, TARANAKI. Ngatea, 13/9/21.