OHURA COMPLAINTS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 261, 21 May 1910, Page 5

OHURA COMPLAINTS.

The following letter was received by the Oh'ura County Council from the Under-Secretary of Public Works: — "Your telegram of the 24th February to the Rt. Hon. the Prime Minister, in which state that there is great distress in the Ohura district owing to the long-delayed expenditure of road grants has been referred to this department for attention, and I have now been instructed to state that during the present -financial year up to the 24th January last authorities have been issued to the district engineer for expenditure within the Ohura County to the amount of £21,170. On the 24th January an offer was made to the Ohura County Council to entrust to them the expenditure of the balance of votes totalling £5794 and actual authority has been issued to the Gounty for work to the value of £ISOO, and further amounts have been authorised to the district engineer for expenditure totalling £3Ol. The amount which is still under offer to the Ohura County Council and for which no proposals for expenditure have been submitted is £3772. In view of the magnitude of the above figure* the Minister is somewhat at a loss to account for the distress you complain of."

REPLY TO THE HON. R. McKENZIE. Sir, —The above is a reply received by the Ohura County Council from the Minister for Public Works to a resolution moved by me, and carried by the Council to the effect that we as a body, took exception to the waste of time caused by the Minister in obstructing the Council in the expending of the road grants and that such a proceeding was likely to cause actual distress in the Ohura district. The Minister's explanation re the above is altogether misleading, and not in keeping with facts. It is all very well for the Hon. R. McKenzie to quote figures by the yard, but it is an entirely different matter to get the enlightened portion of the public to swallow them. Does he seriously want us to believe that the road grants he quotes were ever available in the form of hard cash, when the fact is well-known that they only existed on paper? Now, for a few plain facts: The Ohura County Council on the understanding that the road grants were ever available and would be handed over to the Council for expending on. the various roads for which they were allotted, have kept an expensive staff employed all the summer in order to cope with the work with the result that we find that the Minister has been playing a game of bluff with the Council in order to gain time. Plis methods of dealing with local bodies in the spending of the Government votes for roads and bridges prove that he is either obstructing the votes from being spent or else they are only imaginary. I am in a position to prove that the plans and specifications for a certain road in my riding were submitted for his approval five weeks ago; but so far the County engineer has not been instrutced to let the work. I am prepared at any time to meet the Hon. R. McKenzie on any public plattorm and prove that I was quite justified in moving the above resolution. Further, I won't fail to expose the subterfuges he resorts to in order to make a buffer of the local bodies. —I am etc., FRANCIS C. STUART, Member of Oh«-a County Council.