AN ABSURDITY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 325, 4 January 1911, Page 3

AN ABSURDITY.

J . To the Editor. I Sir, I wonder if the ordinary mortal stops to consider who is the '. cause of the diialoriness present in the construction of our baek-bluck roads. After watching the operations of local bodies, I'ublie Ko'.ds DenartI meet. and the present Government, ;j commend me for a disgusting r.bsurdi- [] ty to the p; .'sent methods. When the i| present Minister of Public Works |! sts.rted i:i to «hift a long estabiished II department like the Roads Depart[l ment, he established n record for

uuuidle-headendess,. not likely to be beaten. The Roads Department had officers trained for years at the game of making tracks to almost inaecessable spots, and were experts in making the money serve as, many settlers as possible. They possibly were not expert at painting pictures or photographing waterfalls: their lives were far too strenuous to be wasted in such foolishness. With them it was a serious matter of giving access to a

struggling settler with the money at their disposal. But now the departments are like the genius who, dis-

solving his body into atoms, projected it along like a telegram. When it got to the receiver it was found it had got mixed with a cat on the way, and, like these mixed departments, was so irretrievably mixed, neither was any more use, except to cause friction, delay and expense. There is a bridge upon Te Maika road twenty odd feet span. The old de partment would easily have erected it for £IOO, but the present department ; demanded forty odd feet, costing £250. In another case on the Mangapohue road, the plans have been so ! long delayed in the Auckland office ' "for approval" that the men who i came to do the work, after waiting for "contracts" for about a couple of months, have left disgusted. So this tale of worry and vexation could go on, but the workers have combined : with the settlers, some of whom have waiced nine years for a road, to have one great anathema at that Auckland ] picture department. They hope it ; will be struck with helioglyphics or i something as disastrous, and if then not guilty, Mr Editor, kindly pass it on to the' Minister. He must be if "the general road staff" are not. If there is one thing that requires pub- | lie disapproval and correction this is I the one! The press and local bodies

' might, for the settlers' sake, ask for i this anomaly corrected, and the Koads ' Department placed that their ofiicrs might expedite yoad construction. : The incubus of tha Public Works Department should be lifted oil' their i backs. —I am, etc., ! PETER ROSS.