THE BULLER ROADS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 237, 6 October 1874, Page 4

THE BULLER ROADS.

Ib 1 the Editor op the 'Evening Mut.' Sib — I am glad to find that you have commented oa the "Grip" road, for of aH the disgraceful things in connection with the management of affairs in Nelson none figure more grossly prominent than the shameless manner in which so great a portion of the revenues of this province have heen squandered on the Buller roads. It seems as though these roads ■tfere never to cease being a kind of insatiable maw, swallowing up thousand after thousand year after year, with the very least good possible being secured in return. The Lake Hill blunder is no sooner exposed, and the Lake Hill Road advocates and writers silenced, than tbe evil assumes a new form, none the less fraught with mischief, and caused by much tbe same set ot people, who, driven from one position, take up a new one, from which they are now about dealing a serious blow to the future prosperity of Nelson. -The road by ihe Devil's Grip is being forced on the public, after it has Rivendii verdict ia the most emphatic manner against it, for happily the lute controversy aa to which is the shortest and best way, the Devil's Grip or the Hope, i^i a controversy no longer, the question having ceased to be a matter of discussion, and become a matter of fact'; nearly the whole of the traffic now coming through the Hope, and tbis in spite of the unfinished state tbe toed has been left in. The public once having enjoyed the advantages secured by the Hope Road, no more think ol irayeliing by tho Roundell and Devil's Grip, than they do of climbing the Lake Hill, and 1 can conceive no public reason at all for making tbe Devil's Grip Road, costing as it will, nearly £1000 per mile, and ceceesitating the farther expenditure of £10,000 or £15,000 in Black Valley, the Big Buab, aqd^Buller J?jains. Other reasons apparently more important in our rulers' minds than ." the greatest good ior the greatest number" / are, however, not wanting, and it is high time the Nelson people made up ibeir minds to have their interests studied for the future in place of that oi a hrery few interested individnals, whether: they be members for the Devil's (Grip or not. I note you refer (to,, .the .existence of this banein)] influence in a recent issue of the Mail, an influence that from some caosfe'dr other has been long past in operation, to wit, the bridge across the Boiler, apparently placed there for the convenience of ' the proprietor of a pH<jep s run, rather than tbe public; and agwn,: -"the SJipß," cleared out annually to allow his wool drays to pass,, but. permitted to be choked up and impassable at other times, forcing other drays at other seasons of the year to ford tbe Buller. And so ifc is 'tilth i- Vhe.JJuller cart road. ,The people of., $ehjon want the shortest, cheapest, a"dd ;l»<;8t road ' to Lyell, but tHe^' 'Government (apparently in deference to this influence) say " tbey 4MI not have if, we will make the -the dearest, aud worst." The public- have^ivTen ' their unmistakeable verdict in favor of the Hope, the Go- " they shall travel by the PmY*z\ Grip," . This will euit tbe Westport pedple no doubt, because the ■troraa road we have from Nelaon to the jky/eH, the less chance we have of competing with tliem in tbeir monopoly of •ibpitrade-with the Lyell. It will also suit the shipping agents because the worse r pyerlan.d communication we bave with "the Lyell the more goods will go WMftfci •}? — * a,?O Buit Marlborough, #£_ !fW. Nelion j after all the sacrifices i^at biive been made for these Buller roads, will she permit, now that carting is to take tbe place of packing, will she -pvrtni»,i_ cay, the benefits bf this vastly *ap_r ior; mode of carriage to be reduced to the smallest de-_re_ possible by taking the road iv the worst possible direction, aud so as, to divide the trade with a pefsbbWring. province? The political exigencies of aspirants (o power may be great, but surely the people will not tolerate the demands of public justice being made subservient ipyany. such Tomsideraiions. v <-. :• . VV. Sej-tember -26, 1874.