THROUGH THE KING COUNTRY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 389, 23 August 1911, Page 5

THROUGH THE KING COUNTRY.

AWAKINO COUNTY

(From Our Special Correspondent.) The importance of the Awakino County as a farming district is becoming recognised daily more and more. With the exception of Southern Awa- ; kino, the settlement of the county has only been a matter of seven or eight years. On the whole, farming has i proceeded very satisfactorily, the | only drawback being the question of j roading and apparently as things stand j to-day in that county a great part of ; the fault is due to the fact that there j is no local body to administer public grants and the work is therefore being carried out by the Public Works Department. The want of a local body j is due to the fact that the county is j an inoperative one. There his been a |

wrangle for some time in eonntictior with such being the case, and somt are in favour of becoming operative as soon as possible, and others are content to do without rating themselves as iong as possible. Those in favour of the latter are principally those resident in Southern Awakino, where they are principally large runhoiders, who do not seem to be willing to pay rates. It is a great pity that such is the case, because the Government do not feel inclined to give assistance to settlers who will not help themselves. The Government quite reasonably objects to spend a lot of public money in providing roading facilities for these owners, and adding largely to the value of their land, unless the owners will rate themselves. Some of the large owners profess indifference as to whether the road is metalled or not, even as to whether the Mokau river is bridged or not. The roads they consider in their present state are good enough to drive their stock over, and their cattle can swim the river; why then, should they submit to a rate on their land? That is the attitude taken up by some of the large owners, who have acquired their lands at extremely low prices and can afford to wait until small settlement forces the sub-division of their holdings. In the meantime they are able to get a good return from grazing, and they know that every year the land is becoming more valuable as small settlement approaches it and that the metalling of the main road must proceed, even though slowly, whether they contribute or not. This is without doubt a very short-sighted policy; short-sighted because the completion of the road will add very considerably to the value of all the landa within reach of it, and selfish because it is hindering the completion of the road which is necessary for the small settlers. Nevertheless, the Government cannot fairly put off the metalling of the road—Te Kuiti to Awakino —and the bridging of the Mokau indefinitely because these selfish landowners will not rate themselves. The completion of important main arterial roads is the duty of the Government, this particularly important road being the only connecting link between two provinces, the only road between Taranaki and Auckland. It is a natural highway as well as a local one, and there is a considerabe amount of | small settlement at various points I along it or served by it. On these j grounds the road ought to be com- j pleted as soon as possible. The sel- I ftshness of the few should not be ; made a pretext for the witholding of the rights of the many. There ought tu be some scheme devised by the Government to bring thi'se runhoiders into line with the more progressive settlers who are paying for the maintenance of roads used by all alike.. In the northern part of the county matters have been very different. Very little of the land settled in that part exceeds 2000 acre holding and the great majority of settlers have been anxious for some time past that something should be done in the shape of making the Awakino County operative. They recognise, and rightly too, > that if they are to have their roads ■ put in order they must be governed j by a local body. The question of rnak- j ing the Awakino County operative j has been discussed by these settlers for some time fast. They have now initiated a petition which has been signed by every settler in that part asking the Minister of Internal Affairs to have their county declared operative. As the matter stands at present they are unable to do anything and once the proclamation is made the settlers will be able to thrash out the ! matter of how the county is going to I be governed. There are a large num- | ber who think that the Awakino County should be governed by settlers in it and others who are in favour of cutting it up into three parts one part to go to Kawhia County another to Waitomo County and another 1;o j Clifton County. Dealing with the first proposal it is really a very questionable matter whether Awakino County should be controlled as it is defined at present. The great drawback is that there is no central posi tion from which to administer. The local body would have to!,aye its headquarters at either Marokopa or Awakino. Both places are situated at the extreme northern and southern portions of the county. Of course if the settlers think that it is best to govern themselves the very first thing that will present itself for a battle will be the question of the headquarters j of the county and as the settlement in j both the northern and southern parts j is very near equal the proceedings j will without doubt be very interest- j ing. There are others who are in j favour of dividing the county, and put j forward the argument that it would be j more economical for those in the various parts of the county to join whichever county their community of interest lies, because the tendency of j to-day is to make the counties larger j instead of smaller. If those who desire to do so will recognise that by doing so they are joining a county fully equipped with staff: and plant and the initial expenses over they will hava an unassailable argument. In the Marokopa and Kiiitehere districts the battle as regards joining the

Kawhia county has been raging loud and long. The whole outcry has however been without avail owing to the fact of the county being inoperatvie and no matter how willing Kawhia was to embrace this district within their fold they were powerless to do anything and so are the settlers. There is not a shadow of doubt that there is no community of interest between the Awakino and the Marokopa ends and that perhaps the best possible solution would be to divide up the county as the settlers think most fit. In the northern part it would be, to my mind, in the best interests of all to join the Waitomo County. The community of interests of those districts are certainly in the direction of the Main Trunk Sine. All the mails for the districts go to and from Te Kuiti, and that being so, the interest is therefore pronounced. Right up to the boundary of the Awakino and Waitomo Counties the latter county has a dray road, and if the districts on the line acknowledged the common interest of the surrounding districts, they should have no hesitation about the right thing to do