TELEPHONE TO OPARAU.

Kawhia Settler and Raglan Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 225, 8 September 1905, Page 3

TELEPHONE TO OPARAU.

(to the editor.) Sir, —Last year I communicated with the Telegraph Department ex* plaining the position of Oparan and that a cable across to Te Maika was not necessary to connect Oparau with Kawhia. The Department agreed to take £l6 per annum as a guarantee. I got a suitable paper prepared, which was duly signed by those willing to give £1 per annum, and an amount of £l2 per annum was thus guaranteed. The Department then sent up a bond to be signed by six guarantors. The first farmer I sent this to refused to become one of six to find amount required. I ’then wrote to Sir Joseph Ward informing him that there was now a County Council in existence in Kawbia, that I had no. time to go round and collect money for the Postal Department, and that they could now deal with the new local body. I have since sent the bend to the County Council. If our loos?. fanners had wanted a telephone they could have bad one by finding the required geartee (which woo'd bear interest at 5 per cent, and ts returned when tie line proved payable). It now devolves on the local body to iihow what it can do. So far it has done nothing but meet at Kawhia. The future will show what it is capable of.—Yoirs, •to., G. H. MACKENZIE.