King Country Chronicle Saturday, January 27, 1012. OUR MAIN ROADS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 434, 27 January 1912, Page 4

King Country Chronicle Saturday, January 27, 1012. OUR MAIN ROADS.

... o The dominant note sounded at the opening of the dairy factory was the vital necessity for roads in Iha district. That such was the case is not to ho wondered at considering the youth of the. district, and the enormous amount of country included within its boundaries. We are undergoing the experience common to ail newly settled localities, though the condi tioi's are rendered more acute by the fact that settlement is chiefly being promoted at considerable distances from the railway. This fact necessitates a main arterial road through unsettled or sparsely settled country, which naturally involves a considerably larger expsnditure than would be the case if settlement had been promoted from the railway outwards. However, conditions beyond the control of the settlers have decreed that the main road shall exist. Unfortunately the main thoroughfare is a road in name only, and before it can be converted into a permanent road canabl:: of serving the settlers at all seasons much hardship and loss has to hj? undergone. The policy which has le 1 to such a state of ad airs need not be criticised at present. It was initialed many years ago and has been perpetuated by successive governments to the detriment of settlers and against the be;it interedaof the Dominion as a whole. Look where you will in the. district and you are confronted with the main road difficulty. At Otorohunga, llatrjatiki. Te Kniti, WaimihOngarue. and Tauniarunui these centres on the railway are starved for the lack of decent means of transit to the fertile back country which exists in each locality. Talcing the case of Tangitu, a settlement which twu or three years ago was opened up for selection in fairly small sections. That the settlers were of the stamp is plainly evidenced by the manner in which the country has been brought in. Every section in the block In 3 been brought to pro-

dueing p<iirit. Government assistance in bringing' the land to such a stage has heen freely rendered and the settlor.? have loyally carried out their obligations. ilo vever, the signilicant and deplorable fact exists that the settlers who braved the hardships of the and conquered the wilderness are robbed of the fruits of their labour for the b.ek of a road over which to convey their produce to a market. Of a main road of eight or ten miles to th;:> railway live or six miles are practically impassable for the greater portion of the year. The providing of proper means of access to the settlement from the railway is obviously .just as much the duty of the Gove-nment as the providing of the railway itself. Given reasonable

menn3 of access by a com men main road the settlers may reasonably be called upon to metal their own bye roads. The history of settlement in the Dominion emphasises the fact that the settlers ara in no wise found lacking when their vit.il interests are at stake. This fact lias been amply demonstrated in the past, and he who runs may read tha same lesson at Tangitu. We trust the obligations of the Government in respect to the Tangitu main road will be immediately recognised and the road permanently constructed in Mie shortest possible time. The work is a national obligation, and in the strictest business sense, a payable proposition for the Dominion.