TURUA LOAN PROPOSAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4364, 11 January 1922, Page 2

TURUA LOAN PROPOSAL.

Divergence of opinion exists in the proposed Turua Town. District as to the advisability or otherwise of supporting the reading loan proposal which is to be put before the ratepayers of the Turua riding and part of the Netherton riding on the 18th of this month. An. apparently considerable minority, considers —or professes to consider that no such proposal should be carried until after the town board is formed. Just what is to be gained by this policy is not very clear, but what is to be lost is quite obvious. If the residents of the proposed town district decide, t*. shoulder the cost of a ..reading scheme alone —which is very doubtful for some years to come —then they will have the mortification of being saddled with a burden for roads of which people living outside the town district area will get the greater benefit, since all of the county settlers must have vehicles of some sort, while many of those in the township will possess “shanks’ pony’’ only. There is now an opportunity of spreading. the burden or the cost of roads in the town district, and roads just outside —by which trade will be brought into Turua—upon the shoulders of the people who will individually and collectively use them, but if the poll is lost, then good-bye to permanent roads for Turua for at least three years. Under the peculiar circumstances existing at Turua,. it is probably a waste of printer’s ink and newspaper space to deal with this subject at length, because there are undoubtedly two factions at work, pulling in opposite directions; whatever one party proposes the other opposes. The result is that the major portion of the community, who have something better to do than to stir up needless strife, do not quite know how to decide between the two sets of arguments. In such a case the best plan is to calmly weigh up the personal characteristics and business ability of the leading men of both parties ; then back the party possessing the greatest measure of integrity, local patriotism, foresight, and balanced judgment. To the. looker-on the position appears to be as follows: The roads in the Turua district are abominably baddairymen, butchers, bakers, grocers, and all others are seriously inconvenienced, and have to foot the bill for excessive wear and tear, plus low traction efficiency; they have all been paying rates for years and years without ever getting any roads worthy of the name. All the general rates are swallowed up in "patching mud” and contributing pro rata to administrative charges. A loan would enable the governing authority to build real roads ; thereafter the cost of maintenance would be relatively small, and no further capital expenditure on those roads would be required,' for a good road, if properly maintained, will last for centuries. Even if the ratepayers in the proposed town district cared to foot the bill for that area, and wait indefinitely for other public facilities, they could not get anything like the value from those roads that they would if the roads leading into the town were good enough to draw the outside trade into the town. Trade travels on good roads; people will go miles further round if it is a choice between a long good road and a short bad one. The roads in the Turua district are of the direct kind, and, therefore, if in good order, would have a doubly compelling power. The farmer can take greater loads on good roads than on bad ones; the wear and tear on his own vehicles and those of the dairy company he is supplying, and for which vehicle upkeep costs he is paying proportionately, is infinitely less. It is a case of mud and misery on the one side, or tarred macadam, traction efficiency, enhanced land values, and increased trade on the other. Rejection of the loan proposal will mean that semj-stagnation which is. the bitter fruit of lost opportunity; the carrying of the poll will result in progress and ultimate prosperity.