MAIN ROAD CONTROVERSY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 652, 18 March 1914, Page 5

MAIN ROAD CONTROVERSY.

The Editor. gj r —The facts in connection with the main road question have been so frequently and systematically distorted by Mr C. K. Wilson and 30me of his friends that his recent letter on the subject will create no surprise. In respect to his denial of being the author of the statements to the Minister concerning the alleged neglect of the road by the Council there is nothing to say. In announcing my belief that Mr Wilson wai responsible for the statements I said if Mr Wilson contradicted the statement I would accept bis denial. He apparently went to ihe trouble of getting th« Minister to proclaim his innocence, which was needless. Mr Wilson assumed the resnonsibility of giving an account of the Council's connection with the road since 1911. I may justly claim to be '"n a position to give a fuller and more accurate account of the Council's. connection with the road than is Mr Wilson, and am quite willing to allow the public to iudge as to the wißdom of the Council's action. Mr Wilson is so far correct with respect to the 1911 proceedings. The Council did let a contract for carting metal and only a amt;ll amount uf work was done. As everyone knows the season was the wettest on record and roading operations throughout the district were* very seriously hampered Having let the contract the Council had to give a reasonable time to the contractor che following spring to recommence operations At the beginning of December a letter was received from the Public Works Department offering to hand over to the Council the expenditure of the money available for the road on condition that the Government maintenance on the road from the five-mile nee onwards ehoujd On this condition the Council's action in respect to the road praUicaily hinged. Th" amount available for expenditure then was £1670 15s 6ri. The utter absurdity of the Council accepting this amount to metal the balance of the road and maintain it can be proved from the figures supplied in the Public Works Estimates The amuunt of money available for the road on March 31st, 1912, was £SOOO of which £35.3 had been' spent and a further liability of £2680 contracted, leaving a balance of £1967. Apparently the maintenance during the winter absorbed the difference leaving the balance of £1670 15s 6d Little more than three months afterwards the Public Works Statement snows a further sum of £8250 on the Estimates, with an amount expended of £1939 and a liability of £827, making a total of £2766. According to these figures, had the Cuuncil accepted the Government's offer and done the same amount oE work as the Government Department accomplished during that period the local body would have been compelled to find £799 independent of any money the Council spent on maintenance on the firnt five miles. The ratepayers know the amount of metalling which has been done on the road between March 31st, 1913. and December 1913, to leave an unautho rised balance out of the vote of £8250, of about £IOOO. It must be apparent even to Mr Wilson as it will he to the ratepayers that, assuming the Council had done the same amount of work as has been done by the Government the cost to-the ratepayers would have amounted tco approximately £SOOO. By its action in refusing the Government's offer to take over the road this amount has been directly savsd to the ratepayers affected. I should like to point out that I have never made any reference to Mr Wilson except in defence of the Council's action; Therefore he is drawing on his imngination in referring to me as his political opponent If the member for the district would refrain from criticism of the local body ana endeavour to assist the district he represents, through the proper channels, he would be better fulfilling the purpose for which he was elected by his constituents.—l am, etc..

A. SCHOLES, Chairman Waitomo County Council