THE BULLER ROADS, &c.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 290, 8 December 1871, Page 2

THE BULLER ROADS, &c.

To the Editor ok the Nelsox Evening Mail. Sir, — Making every allowauce for incapacity in the mat, ter (and truly ample allowance on this head is needed), si ill 1 feel quite positive that if the parties who are directing the expenditure that is now taking place on the Buller roads between the Owen and tbe Hope had to use these Buller roads themselves ; if it was their horses who had to struggle along them ; if it was their goods and property that was jeapordised ; and if it were their convenience aud interest that was at stake, we should not then, as is the case now, have to witness the wilfulness aud the folly of making the good part, of these roads better, at the cost of leaving the bad part as dangerous and as neglected, and as muddy as ever ; and I should like to know what right the parlies referred to have to be less considerate of the public interests than they would be of their own ? Your readers will recollect that £2000 of the Nelson portion of the General G-overnment grant for roads was hauded over to the Motueka Valley Road Board at the time their jurisdiction was extended so as to include the Upppr Boiler. This sum judiciously expended would have done everything that was worth doing to the roads as far aa bridle tracks are concerned; and would have conferred a great boon on the diggings aud the settled districts and the Province at large, and would have so improved the communications and facilitated the ease and safely of passengers and the carrying of goods, that the necessity of something better than bridle tracks would have been forced on the mind of the public, and thus the way would have been paved for properly opening up this important district which will never be done with bridle tracks, however good. Now, I will endeavor to point out what might, and should, have been done with the £2000 in question. — £200 would have paid the cost of erecting a good substantial horse bridge across the Buller at the Mangles; £400 would have erpcted another across tbe Buller below Jacklin's, and all who know the district will appreciate the boon these two bridges would have conferred upon it; £500 would have done away with the mass of stinking aud putrefying muddy slime, reaching in the winter time from the Owen to the Maugles, and it would have also remedied all the rocky gutters and steep pinches which ■ horses have the greatest difficulty in dragging their loads up; £400 would have been an ample sum for making the track through the Hope, a good passable bridle track; and £100 would have dove all that was worth doing or wanted doiDg between the Hope and the Owen, and on which piece of road the whole £2000 has been suuk or is in course of being expended. There would then be £500 left for repairs ou the Matakitaki and other places which need attentiou. The road between the Hope and the Owen was in tolerable repair, and no one ever complained of it with the exception of a few bad patches atfd pieces which 1 have said £100 would have remedied. Miles of this road iv its old state was as sound and as hard as a roai need be, and did not need the bush felling to let the

sun in, for there was nothing to dry up, and no amount of traffic or rain could possibly have crushed it into mud, and yet, in the red tapeism llmt has been carried out, these parts must be altered, the bush must be felled, foolish and insignificant deviations must be madp, for no useful purpose whatever, and in some cases even to substitute a narrow, danjrerous cutting, for the previous broad, safe one. lam told there is a mile saved in the distance, but is this worth £2000 ? and what is this mile in comparison to the twenty-five miles that would be saved by opening the Hope track ? This track is already passable for empty horses, and £400, as I have said, would render it practicable for loaded oues, and would be the meaDS of saving two days, reckoning both ways each journey. But For remainder of neios see fourth page.

it would effect much more even than this. The opening of this track would be the ; means of enabling the settlers in the Motupiko and Motueka Valleys to ex- ; change their flour, and bacon, and butter, i and eggs, and fruit, for the gold that j would be brought to their doors in ex- i change for these things, for the store- j keepers on the Upper Buller could send ; tbeir horses through this track and get i supplies. But in tha place of these important manifold benefits being conferred, | what have we ? Ten miles ot bridle ; track of a very motley character, ridicn- , lously wide in the flats where there is no ! danger, and dangerously narrow in the j side-cuttings, where a false step is destruc- j tion. Suiely it is high time the public , interested themselves iv these things, i Trusting this communication may do ■ something in creatiug this public interest, ■ I am, sir, j Yours, &c, : James Grove. ! Foxhill, December 3, 1871. j [While affording Mr. Grove space for the foregoing letter we must impress upon j him the necessity of putting what lie has to say into fewer words, otherwise, we shall^ for the future be compelled to adopt exceedingly unpleasant alternative of depriving the public of the benefit of his communications. — Ed. JS.E.M.}