ROADING SCHEME.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 489, 21 October 1925, Page 2

ROADING SCHEME.

KEREPEEHI RIDING PROPOSAL. FRIDAY’S LOAN POLL. -? On Friday next the ratepayers of. the Kerepeehi riding will have an op- r portunity of voting on a proposal .. which has been fathered by the Rate- .. payers’ Association to authorise the .County Council to borrow' the sum of £33,800 on the security of a rate of 6 4-5 d in the £ on the unimproved . value of the land in the rating area for the purpose of road improvements.; Portion of the loan will be to provide the settlers’ half-share of. the’ cost of the hain highway through the'' riding. This xyill eventually be built up to main highway standard and bi.tumen-sealed, but as a great proper- ■ tion of the road is not yet even. -metalled it will be years before the «• whole of the loan money is lifted; The completd highway is estimated to cost '. £24,200, of which the settlers have to find half. Wairau and Pekapeka roads are not metalled, and as it is recognised that it is unwise to bitumen- : . seal, a new road, about one-quarter of- . the loan for the highway will not need to be lifted until the cost of / maintaining the first course of metal approaches the amount of the interest, etc., on the loan for. the rest of the work. The riding roads are the Kerepeehi- _ Wharepoa road from the wharf .to.the riding boundary near Chatfield’s and the portion of the Turua-Netherton . road from the main highway at Peka? peka Road corner northward to the-’ty Turua riding boundary. These roads' are estimated to tost £6llO to com- - , plete as bitumen-bound roads, and a . subsidy ‘of 5s in the £ may. be obtain- , ed, as was promised for the Turua roads. - ’ A £ for £ subsidy is-practically cer- . tain far Kaikahu Road, and it is very probable that the subsidy will be £2 for £l, as this has been granted for” other roads on the Plains. It is possible that a greater subsidy may be . obtained on account of the amount of Government land traversed. For the township roads a £ for £ subsidy of £1375 has been provided on the'' last Public Works -- in addition the Government haspromised to contribute £7 for every chain of frontage it holds in the ,to wns hip. This will amount to £555. With all these subsidies the loan required to be lifted will, not be so 3 very great, and the rate .will not be ; anything like as high as that which some of the other ridings will, have to pay, - If the loan is not sanctioned tlie maintenance rate will-have to be increased to 3d or 3%d, so little argument should be necessary to induce ratepayers to follow the lead of the Turua, Horahia, and, more recently, the Netherton riding ratepayers and sanction the loan.