TO THE EDITOR.

Patea Mail, 24 July 1880, Page 3

TO THE EDITOR.

[Correspondents are invited to discuss matters of public interest with fairness and brevity; this journal being an impartial medium of discussion and advocacy for all affairs relating to the County of Patea.] ROAD BOARDS v. COUNTY COUNCILS. Sia, —It is becoming clear to me (hat either the Road Boards or County Councils should be done away with, and the powers of the two separate bodies merged into one. Tim question therefore is as to which is the fitter to survive. Should there he any iu this County who arc in doubt about this question, let such at once betake themselves to Kakaramea, and try the experiment of navigating thence a few miles inland via Upper Kakaramea Road (so called), a sort of track under what is called the management of a,local body (strictly local, jointly and severally) known by the imposing title of Patea West Road Board, My experience satisfies mo that long before the bold navigators aforesaid could possibly return to their starting point, all former doubts would be effectually removed as to the question of the “fittest’’ —that is, whether this Road Board is the fittest in this case.

Sir, it exceeds vexation to witness the misery and torture to man and beast, not to speak of actual loss sustained by many, in attempting to convoy goods and materials along the so-called roadway, for road there has never yet boon, nor is there likely over to ho a proper road so long as that close-fisted Road Board stands in the way of real advancement and prosperity within their prescribed bounds ; for those enlightened yeomen doggedly refuse to make or keep in repair roads to meet the growing wants and requirements of their district. How can real progress ho made in any community without roads ? It is not sufficient to mark off roads on plans or maps, or oven to fence off tracks ; they must be formed and made passable, before they can really ho suitable to the wants of a community.

Tlie district through which and to which this particular road leads is fast rising in importance ; and were the road placed under the management and control of the County Council or some other body influenced by liberal and broad sympathies, and make it passable, that road would at once become an important highway into the interior and afford to existing industries—the Kakaramca saw-mill to wit—the facility for getting useful products to market, besides encouraging - settlement over a wide and fertile area at present almost inaccessible, except by balloons. But, sir, would yon believe it, that in the face of these facts, this liberal Hoad Board has made a rate of fourpence in the £, just sufficient, I presume, to pay the cost of collecting, and enabling those seven or eight representatives, not of the people but of their personal interests, to meet once every alternate month, and discuss the best method of how to do nothing ? I say the sooner wo bestir ourselves and send such wooden “ boards” to the right about, the better for the district. They have neAor done much good in this district, and I for one would like to see them as extinct as the Moa. Should you think my remarks worthy of consideration, I would ask you to look into this matter, and by the Press smite them “ hip and thigh.”—l am, &c., Cock-a-Bexdy.

Sin, —In your columns of Tuesday it is reported that meetings of ratepayers in the several Road Board Districts in Hawke’s Bay have been held, the question of local government being discussed, and that the opinion in each place has been in favour of Board Boards and opposed to County Councils. Now, is it not time that Patea was making a move in the same direction as two local bodies putting the screw on us is too much for ordinary mortals to stand ? No doubt Road Boards have not given anything like satisfaction, but in course of time that will rectify itself, as ratepayers will come to sec the benefit of putting in more practical men for the future than has been done in' many cases where money has been thrown away. Pur instead of the work benefiting the roads where it has been done, the reverse has been the case, because those spending our money did not know how to do so to advantage. Nevertheless they arc more useful and less expensive than County Councils, and the sooner Patea makes a move and gets up meetings in the different districts: to discuss the : advisability of sweeping the one or the other out of existence the better, for if we don’t fight our own battles, no one else will.—l am, A Ratepayer.