CORRESPONDENCE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 204, 1 November 1909, Page 5

CORRESPONDENCE.

| To the Editor. Sir.—l have read a lot of letters and comments in your paper re the state of the roadt in the King Country, and as one who has travelled over a good portion of them 1 most say they are, in my opinion, an absolute disgrace to those who are responsible for them; whether It be the officers In the fields; those in the city office, or the Minister in charge. There is bo language strong enough to condemn the system that has been in vogue for what is termed: Making roads for settlers on Crown Lands. Daring the past season a gold many thousands of pounds were I spent on widening and grading the ! road*, which looked very nice when

! first dortc But for how lon|t did I it appear so? in some filacer only till : the first spell of wet weather, find then I the last state was worst thai the first |as far 05 getting over them was coni cerred. Now Sir, I consider that the 1 responsible party should know that it was in a good many instances a waste | of public furrd? to beautifully form up : the roads in such places and not protect | that formation with a coat of metal, and there are many places where this process would have gone hand in hand. Around Te Kutti there it plenty of metal and yet within a few chains of it the roads have been a perfect quagmire knee-deep in slush and mud so bad that they will require to be reformed next season, and the nest unless metal is laid down. I have atked why the road is thrown ov»r the side instead of bent? put or* the surface and am totd. that the money has been grant**! -for widening the roads -and not to metal it. I notice they always get the metal pitched ever the side and j thrn make thfT-trnck road of clay, j This is particularly noticeable around i the Waitomo District where the best ; of metal has been quarried out and religiously thrown over the side. On the roads from Pirongia to Kawhia for j some miles was beautifully formed | ; up. left, and soon got into such a state ! !as to be almost impassable while j ! there was any quantity of metal withlin easy distance. The same is true of I the roads leading to Otorohanga with plenty of unused metal in the VVaipa [ and even on the road side. A short ' time ago I saw on the Otorohanga- j Kihikihi road a boggy with four people j in it down to the axle making it im- | possible for two good horses to move. I ateo saw at the time a waggon with five hoiraes stuck-up with only IS cwt. on. Again on the I'irongia road three good horses could not get through with only three people, and these had to get out and trudge along through the mud for some distance. In the same plac»? fwi empty konaki got bogged and had to hauled out with a windlass. On the Otorohanga-tlauturu road it took 9 horses and two vehicles to take 15 cwt. M miles out, and on the next

trip the waggons got bogged, and bail to be left on the road. Now, sir. I know thnt it i.t sometimes rather expensive to rrtslal roads, but I also know it is vt»ry expensive to keep on ! reforming rond s every year. And tbat lis not all: See what a heavy tax it is lon settlors when they have to pay 53 to 7a Ptl pT cnvl. for cr.rtin? 9 to 1-1 j miles, and glad to get it through at ; any cost. On a fair road the cost should only be from Is to Is 6d per cwt. Bad roads are an absolute bar to enterprise. The State los«*s in a I doable sense as well as the individual. What I contend is that all parts of J ! the road that are ilkcly to become I really bad. should be metalled, say, oae mil© in every three. This should be done in the summer and not left till winter or autumn. Tbat, whatever the cost of this would be it would amp- | ly repay the State to get it done as early as possible. As the Powers that lie have said that they would spend £250.000 a year extra for four years on roads it would be a good thing if they would spend a large portion of it in metalling. I am, etc., OBSERVER.