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Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 30, 31 January 1877, Page 2

Tiie last we have heard of the contract for metalling the Karere road was that, m the absence of the Hon. Mr Ormond, the Minister for Public Works, the decision respecting the tenders had to be postponed. Whether Mr Ormond' s absence is likely to be long or short we have not the least idea, but the time for putting the road into a state of repair, so as to render it passable during the winter, is diminishing very rapidly and the work will take some time. Government seem to move m the matter only when they are urged to do so. The representations of the Manawatu Highways Board on the subject were followed by an advertisement calling for tenders, and now if the County Council were to take the matter up, and remind the Public Works Department of the urgency of the case, the work might possibly be commenced. If it be deferred till the wet weather sets m, we may bid adieu to all prospect of seeing it completed until next summer,- and reconcile ourselves as well as we can to the prospect of a six-months' suspension of traffic on the road. There is another hardship arising from the delay, namely, the inconvenience occasioned to the tenderers — some of whom are poor men — by the detention of the, to them, considerable sums of money paid as deposits, not to speak of the suspense and uncertainty. A resident m this township telegraphed yesterday to Mr Johnston, the M.H.E. for the distinct, on this subject, but the reply was only a repetition of the old story — that the matter was awaiting the return of Mr Ormond.