THE HOROWHENUA RIDING.

Manawatu Herald, 23 August 1881, Page 3

THE HOROWHENUA RIDING.

TO THE EDWOT 6Jf THE MANA\TATIT HERALD. Sir, I see by notice published in a recent number of the Evening Post that we are to be again allowed the privilege of paying a shilling rate to the County Council Itiß true that the Road Board has only impoßed a rate of 6d for the last two years, and finds the sum thus rawed ample for all requirements in a Maori Riding. It is also Jfe. true that with the exception of the gentleman who so faithfully represents us in the Council, there is not a single ratepayer in the riding who is in favour of a Is rate. But what of that, we dont any of us know what is good for us ! Sir, I feel so convinced that the only reason why any of us object to paying the extra sixpence is, because it is not generally known how judiciously the County rate has hitherto been expended, that I venture to ask you to find space for the enclosed return of receipts and expenditure of this riding front Ist April 1879, to 31st March, 1881. The first item, £31, is rather heavy for clearing out a creek for a distance of about 20 chains, but when the critic is informed that the work was done by a genius, who, by following a sucesscion of gentle curves made the distance fully onethird longer, than it would otherwise have been, he will admit that the amount was well expended. Bye-the-bye, the same work requires doing over again, and it will be well to secure the services of the man who did it before if he be agreer-able to take the contract again. ' There is only one other small amount in this part of the return that needs explanation, and that is the £26 8s 3d for Oroua Bridge. Of course this bridge isn't in Horowhenua riding, but there is a clear understanding that the riding in which it is situated is to give us * bridge when we want one. We paid £51 8s lid for working expenses and pay sheet, and little enough too! We began the next financial year with a balance of £221 9s 3d to our credit, and the Oroua bridge. Oar proportion of • ' working expenses " has now risen to £58 2s 2d and our " Maintenance Pay Sheet " to X23 13s lOd. The riding is evidently rising in importance, and there is a gentleman of unmistakable administrative ability looking after its interests. There are two small items in this part of the account, which it may be as well to say a few words about. The first is £84 19s 2d, Beach Road, Manawatu. This sum does at first glance, I admit, appear a large one for laying off a road across an open country— particularly if we consider that it is at the rate of about JE2I per mile, whilst the price at which we are having our special settlement road lines cut through solid bush is only £6 per mile. I am, however, assured on the best authority that the surveyor who perf oßtaeU the arduous task couldn't possibly lave done it in less than a week; and that considering the size of the survey pegs used the charge was low — very. The last item, £195 13s, for the " Otaki-Wai-kanae Road," is perhaps the most difficult of explanation. About £150 of this was spent in cutting a line with five angles in it, and the balance in cutting a straight line from point to point. Sir, we must not look at the present oidy. Years hence, when that straight line has been worn by constant traffic into a hot and dusty highway, the travel-stained swagger, turning aside from the beaten track, will wander blissfully down these cool, shady lines from one Maori clearing to another, and as he boils his humble billy under the shade of a peach tree, and, perchance, partakes of some of the luscious fruit lying around him will invoke blessings on the head of the man who out those lines ; and yet people say that our County Council is a useless expense, and that our member hasn't done ' his duty, and that without him and the Council to spend our rates for us we should at this pieeent time have a balance of upwards of £389 to our credit, instead of £97 17s lid ! Such ingratitude ia too monstrous. I can no more, lam, &c, Otaki, 18th August, 1881. A Return of Receipts and Expenditure of the Horowhenua Rifting from the Ist of April, 1879. to 31st March, 1880, and from Ist April, 1880, to 31st March, 1881. Receipts. April 1.1579, to March 31, 1880.