ROAD TO HIKUAI

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 32, Issue 3291, 21 July 1943, Page 5

ROAD TO HIKUAI

(To the Editor.) Sir, —We, as a nation, have become so used to sectional interests pushing their respective • barrows and using all the pull, political or otherwise, which can be commanded, that it has become customary to completely disregard the economic rights of the community as a whole. There is now being enacted in the Thames County one such tragedy. The Thames Chamber of Commerce, as prime mover, has co-opted the Hikuai settlers with the exception of' myself and some others and has got a petition signed to apply to the Government for a grant to form a motor road via Kauaeranga to Thames from Hikuai. This road will take at least £35,000- to build. The fact that they have promised to contribute about 6 per cent, of the cost rather weakens their case than otherwise. A necessary road does not ask for such support. The land which it is claimed can be opened up in the Hikuai district would be better served by an outlet via Neavesville to Puriri at one-sevenths the cost. The distances by. the two routes are practically the same. If the Hikuai settlers would back ,a bit from the boa-constrictor eyes of the Thames commercial interests, they would be able to see that their real interests lie in obtaining good stock tracks via Neavesville and’ the Whangamata-Hikutaia route. The proposed expenditure on the Kauaeranga route would go a long way towards a bitumen road from Tairua to Waihi where there is also a hospital. At present the prospects of the district supporting another motor road are problematical. Should future land development prospects warrant further expenditure, the more suitable of the stock tracks could ,be later converted inte a motor road. If a road is formed via Kauaeranga the future of. the 'Hikuai district will be decidedly handicapped for the reason that when the settlers wake up they will find themselves tied to Thames.—l am, etc., ROBT. L. 1 WILSON. Neavesville Rd., 'Puriri. 19:7:43.