The Patea Mail. PUBLISHED WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1877.

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 245, 15 August 1877, Page 2

The Patea Mail. PUBLISHED WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1877.

Some people in the Patea district show a disposition to growl at times because a trifling rut may sometimes be met with on the main line of road. Such should pay a visit to Wanganui, Immediately on entering the Wanganui county the difference in the state of the main road is observable. From near Chawiek and Belcher’s (Waitotara), for half a mile or so, some attempt at improving the road lias been made by the laying down of the trimmings from gorse hedges. At other places between there and Wanganui thorn and gorse hedge trimmings have been laid on the road loosely or in bundles. The doers, or rather the responsible parties, are almost entitled to be indicted for cruelty to animals. However horses

and cattle manage to pick their way along unscathed is puzzling. Sticking up in all directions are the stern-ends of bushes some being regular shin bruisers. 1 raffle along the road is heavy, and for miles at a stretch, particularly after a day or two of rain, there rs a succession of dangers to horses and conveyances in the shape of quagmires of slush, puddled clay, ruts (axle deep), crooked and tumble down looking narrow bridges, and lengths of gorse and thorn hedge cuttings with shin bruising stem-ends and masses of tough egtanglcd upstanding branches which are terrible to encounter. On Friday last, ■just beyond the Kai Iwi hotel, right in the center of the narrow roadway, a plank of a culvert had apparently been sometime broken, thus leaving a largo hole, a kind of trap for the legs of passing cattle or horses. Altogether the north road from Waitotara to Wanganui is a disgrace to the Wanganui County. The County Council appears to be alive to the necessity for effecting improvements, though settlers in certain districts are objecting to be rated for the work. The mail coach passes along the road daily, frequently heavily freighted with passengers and luggage. Strong coaches and horses and skilful driving are necessary to overcome the difficulties and dangers of travelling such roads. It is no less than wonderful that day after day, and regularly about the same time, the coach arrives at the various stopping places on the road. Coachman During is entitled to no small amount of cieclit for the clock-work like regularity of his appearances, and particularly in wet and rough weather, such as was experienced during the past week.