PLAINS NEEDS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4425, 9 June 1922, Page 2

PLAINS NEEDS.

S.r,—Farmers seldom applaud ths press. We greatly appreciate your vigorous use of printers’ ink in remindlng us of; the many natural ad.vantages in and close to our district. Questions such as roads, railways, canals, and maintaining the rivers for navigation have been excellently dealt with, by your paper. I am with yon when you state that such improvements will enable Paeroa to advance and reach its goal of prosperity. We must be careful in guarding against the selfish methods of another town, and I would not be doing my farming comrades any harm in warning them against the enormous big things the Thames people Wave at the back of their heads. A bridge from Orongo to Thames ; for who. and for what ? The farmer pays to make a traffic line to Auckland or elsewhere. The only advantage the bridge will be to anybody on the Plains side of the river is that we will have a white elephant tied up near the back yard of; Turua. Auckland cannot afford a bridge across its harbour. Sydney, with a smaller span, cannot afford a bridge, but Thames (N.Z.) wants a harbour and a bridge to divert the trade from Pasroa nt the expense of my comrades. Oh, no, Mr. Thames. There is something we must have before such luxur’es. We want some of Nature, which is in abundance. We want a real good water supply, and now is the moment for our Hauraki Plains Council to look around and get a report, not from one of the Thames storekeepers, but from a competent civil engineer, who should be a proved man at his business. Waitawheta has the liquid we require, and, Mr. Editor, if a scheme is put into business shape by a competent engineer we w'll further improve the quality of our produce, and the farmers know that sparkling water is handier in the back yard than a white elephant. CON. Te Awaiti, 1/6/22.