NORTH-WESTERN ROAD DEVIATION.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 164, 26 April 1872, Page 3

NORTH-WESTERN ROAD DEVIATION.

The following petition, in connection -with the proposed deviation of the main North-Western . road ~ between Pigrqot and this place, is, we understand/now being extensively signed throughout the distinct. Copies ]of the petition have, we believe, been forwarded to the various upcountry towns which the proposed deviation will be likely more particularly to benefit; and we have no doubt that, when presented to the Provincial Council, it will be found to be unanimously signed by the inhabitants not only of Mount Ida, but of nearly the whole of the up-country towns connected with the line of road referred to:—

THE PETITION OF THE RESIDENTS, MINERS AND OTHERS OP THE KASRB'T PORTrOtf OF "'THE , MOUNT IDA DISTRICT • Humbly Sheweth— That the present road, communication (the North-western branch) between Dimedin and the up-country (Joldfields towns is eminently, unsatisfactory. That, as might have b3en expected in the opening up of a road to a new rush, the Government of the-day has, in .order to meet imr mediate necessities, adopted the first draytrack without regard to the, physical features of the country. That, though this system, if system it can be called, is clearly decernible along the whole line from Dunedin to Queenstown, and in no place is its fallacy more palpable than in the portion of the road which at present compels the ascent and descent of the Houridburn Hill.

That a deviation from the 5 present line of road in that.quarte: is. not .only advisable, and necessary, but practicable on the of a sum of money which the up-counfcry districts feel themselves justified in demandingtheir large, contribution to the revenue being taken into consideration. \'

.That, by the route which your petitioners recommend, and which has been shown to be perfectly-practicable at a moderate expenditure, the.Hoiindburn Hill can be avoided —the.disto the up-country districts considerably lessened—and the whole traffic of the interior be made to pass (as it should do) through this place, making Naseby the natural emporiumof the internal traffic of the Otago Province. . That.by the route now pointed, mencing at what has been known as the Shag River fluming and terminating (as it should do) atrthe Naseby fluming—no place would be either injured or ignored ; while, on the other hand, all up-country towns must be benefitted , and none perhaps so much so as Naseby, from ths fact of her extremely central position... That your memorialists have heard .with surprise that the KbaH Engineer, Mr. Oliver, has, for some reason or other hitherto unexplained, and perfectly unintelligible to your memorialists, recommended a deviation:in the neighborhood of • H'll, Vwhich will, in point, of distance; confer little benefit upon the up-country districtb. Wherefore, your memorialists pray that Mr. Simpson, who has, we understand, been ordered to report upon the Sludge Channel and Water Supply question, be" intrusted to investigate this matter, and report thereupon to the Grovernment at the earliest opportunity, as well not only as to .the advisability and practicability of the proposed deviation, but as to the course which such deviation should take.

Your memorialists therefore pray that'a sufficient sum may be placed upon the Estimates to cover the expenses of such deviation.