COUNTY BOUNDARIES

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 689, 25 July 1914, Page 2

COUNTY BOUNDARIES

The EJditor. Sir, —I feci sure that all rightthinking ratepayers will agree and applaud'your expression of opinion on the above subject. Rightly, aa you state, the great '"avenue uf transit" in our midst is the Main Trunk railway, and, indeed, ia an excellent line of demarcation between Eastern and Western interests jf the King Country. The Eastern Bide, of course, would solely depend on the railway, while the Western would have the advantages of a dual outlst in in the aea-board and the railway; the seaboard being for the transport of exports and imports for areas close and contiguous to the coast liiis, with the railway as a useful adjunct for a more speedy dispatch of business and travelling generally. In several instances recently attempts have been made by eettlerß to transfer their interests of local government from one County to another; therefore it is plainly discernible that nothing would be more welcomed than a commission to adjust communities of interests. The fact of settlers wanting to cut off slices of counties, here and there to suit their own conveniences, and to the detriment of others, without any regard for collective interests is to be deplored. The machinery exist ing for the control of counties, especially baekbloek districts, should not be disturbed, unless some veiy glaring and flagrant hardships ara being undergone by Bettlers, funtil a properly set-up commission can be constituted to collect and determine the facts. The question, therefore,that naturally will srise will be as to how tnis should be dune. A well-founded belief of many i 3 that interests are from the coast to the railway, and vice versa. This must be the accepted order of things for many years to come; even when Kawhai harbour has achieved its object, aece3s to the railway will have to ba sought. "Harbourites" will tell you thai the ports of Kawhia and New Plymouth will catsr for the whole of settlement between those points, and t' at roads should of necessity run to them. Perhaps, that may apply in the case of New Plymouth, as far as the northern part of the Clifton County ia concerned, but once acruss the Mokau river, from Taranaki, a different roading system is met with. Roads from there northward to Kawhia harbour run to the railway and we find no less than What must be called three main arterial roads, and a fourth to be completed, soon, running from t6ia stretch of coast to a converging point at Te Haiti. They are • from Awakino via Mahoenui and Pio Pio; trom Marokopa via Moeatoa and Arapae; and from South Kawhia via Waitomo; and the other via Mangao.tald to the Waikawau. The produce of settlers from Wikawau, Awakino, and Mokau will always be conveyed by steamer, to the Taranaki port, and a similar setvice from Marokopa to Xawhia harbour. Now, the roads in the Awakino County, terminating at these various points or the coast line, have their obvious interest at these points, and to the railway: not to either harbours, T-ake, for instance, at Marokopa th 9 sum of £'Boo is about to be spent on shipping accommodation, eo, therefore, Marokopa must only be regarded as a complement of Havvhia harbour, having a distinct individuality in its own recourse. Likewise, the other coastal ports are complements of New Plymouth. Kiritshere-Pomerangi settlers, and others, would not be likely to pay cartage to Kawhia harbour, when* they will be able to dispatch their produce from Marokopa to Kawhia —a few hours' trip. Therefore the. theory that roadß from all points to the harbour and government of same from that quarter is not only unthinkable, but exploded. Consequently, the opinion, is held by many tbat with the exception of, perhaps, the remote centre of the Southern portion of Awakino County, that the wholq of that County and South Kawhia should be controlled by one "laody with its headquarters at the railway. Ifj these facts were placed before a commission, there is little dojbi. but that the broad principles of such a scheme would be readily grasped and the potency of it easily understood. Controlling undivided interests could be much more economically and justly administered by one authority, than by two or three different bodies. —I am, etc., SETTLER.