MAIN ROAD MAINTENANCE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 644, 18 February 1914, Page 5

MAIN ROAD MAINTENANCE.

COUNTY CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT. DEPUTATION TO WELLINGTON. RECEPTION BY MINISTER. At Monday evening's meeting of (he Waitumo County Council the chairman, Mr A. Scholes, in reporting on his visit to Wellington to interview the Minister of Public Works concerning the main road and other county matter?, said when he left Te Kuiti hs was unaware that the Minister was to visit the town. He would have gone to Otorohanga and interviewed the Minister at that centre, but a meeting of the Backblocks' Association had been arranged at Ta Kuiti for the same day as the Minister was to be at Otorohanga. In any case it was pro hably better to proceed to Wellington where all the records of *he department were available for reference.

When he approached the Hon Mr Fraser concerning the road he point-'d cut that when the road was handed over to the Council it wa not in good repair, and he asked for assistance towards repairing that portion of the'road in view of the approaching winter.

In reply to this Mr Fraser flatly contradicted him, stating the road had been handed over in good condition, and that the Council had done nothing to maintain it in the meantime The Minister further stated be had been taken over the road when at Te Kuiti, and had been told the state of the road waa due to the Council's neglect. The chairman continuing, said he believed those statements had been made to the Minister by Mr Wilson, the member for the district. If Mr Wilson could deny it he (the speaker) would be glad to hear to that effect. He was making the statement publicly in order to give the member an opportunity to contradict it. The speaker had never introduced political matters into the Council meetings or in connection with the county work. He wished, however, in the interests of the district, to enter a protest against methods of the sort referred to. It was difficult enough for a local body to get business satisfactorily arranged with tha Minister when the member waj acting with the Council. When he was entirely antagonistic, aa Mr Wilson apparently was, it was a very bad/ thing for the whole district. The chairman, continuing, paid fortunately they were in a position to refute such wild statements, and show the Minister exactly what money had been spent on the road since it had been taken over by tha Council. Mr Wilson could have had those figures by applying to the Council, but apparently preferred to do all he could to discredit the local authority, instead ot assisting them in obtaining assistance to develop the distict.

In view of what was evidently being circulated in connection with the expenditure on the main road he had instructed the clerk to prepare a statement of receipts and expenditure in those ridings from which the revenue formaintaining the road should be drawn. This showed that for the two and a half years ending last September the total revenue from the Paemako and Aria ridings, and those portions of the Te Kuiti and Mairoa ridings served by the road, including rates, proportion of Government subsidy, licenses and all other sources amounted to £1989 14s lOd. As against this had to be charged portion of administration expenses, printing and advertising, additions to buildings, insurance and general expenses amounting to £lO9l lis lOd; to which had to be added proportion of hospital levy of £24S 4s lid, making a total expenditure of £13391 5s lOd. This left a balance of £649 19s. Out of this amount the Council had spent on the main road, between April 1911 and September 1913, the amuunt of £425 6s sd. This left an amount of about £225 for expenditure on all the other roads of the ridings mentioned. He left it to any unbiassed person to say whether the main road had received its due proportion of expenditure out of tie revenue received.

It was quite plain to all who knew the district that some special provision had to be made for the maintenance of the road, and the scheme would require to be of a comprehensive nature There were several reasons why a special scheme had not been started before. The people had been led to believe that the Government would take over the road, and this had delayed action to a certain extent. Then, again, the Awakino County was interested in any general scheme, and the Awakino County Council had only been recently started. A general scheme, either for a road or railway, had now been inaugurated by the two counties, and they would see the matter through. In the meantime it was the duty of the Government to assist them, and anything which tended so prejudice the County in the eyes of the Minister was only doing harm to the settlers, and accomplishing no good purpose.