KIRITEHERE-MOEATOA.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 567, 14 May 1913, Page 6

KIRITEHERE-MOEATOA.

Own Correspondent. A RESIDENT ENGINEER. There is a growing impression here, founded on bitter experience, that the requirements of this large and rapidly growing district would be beßt served by a resident engineer with headquarters in Te Kuiti, and, in truth, taking all things into consideration, this would be the beßt means in which to safeguard the interests of settlers and townspeople alike. The streams on the Te Kuiti to Marokopa road are swollen and almost impassable at times, in winter, and have fords as primitive ai when the first missionary came down to make the Maori wner than his white brother.

If the department knew how this progressive district is held back by a few miles of unwidened road it would hasten to connect the uncompleted Mangakokopu-Pomerangi road with the widened portions atKiritehere and at Manga jhae, and bring coast and railway into communication by means of a vehicular road. Te Kuiti would benefit to the extend of many hundreds of pounds during the year, and a good road thus made would unite interests, and extend trade; it would teem with life pouring in from highways and by-ways to a commoon trade centre. The country settler driving in with his family would bring joy to the harassed Bhopkeeper and provide him with ready cash, for it is the settlers, the roadmen, the bushmen, and the stockdrovers, who know how to spend when they are out for a few days. People dread the journey when they have to negotiate the distance over bad roads on a rough gaited country horse, which has apent his life dodging stumps on an ill-made bridle track.

A SQUARE DEAL! Money expended on decent roads ib 1 money laid out at a high rate of interest, and every pound spent on packing | commodities to old-settled district i is | money which might have gone to ! improve the farm, or pay rates for roads and bridges, and is, in any case, money lost to the country. The money spent on packing alone, counting it interest, would widen most of the roads and keep them in a good state of repair. THE MAIL. A four-wheeler now carries the Te Kuiti-Marokopa mail as far as the end of the widened road at Mangaohae from whence the reat of the run, a distance of about twenty miles, is done by pack horse, with side delivery all the way. A few years back the mail from Mangaohae to Moeatoa, Kiritehere and Marokopa, could be carried strapped to the front of the riding saddle, and now, such has been the progress of the district, it takes two stout pack horses to carry the burden of parcels and letters. There is often nearly a hundred weight of mail delivered en route from Moeatoa to Marokopa, and the mail is steadily growing in weight. In spite of our urgent requests that the Mangakokopu-Pome-rangi road be widened for the nril coach, and foi stock and passenger traffic from Te Kuiti to the coast, little has been done. AN INVITATION.

Mr C. K. Wilson, M.P., is heartily invited by the settlers here to come in and pay us a visit, and to endorse, which we know he will, all our remarks on the existing state of the roads in this part of his electorate. We urgently request the business people of Te Kuiti to render us every assistance in getting adequate means of communication with their town.