ALONG THE COAST.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1183, 24 October 1882, Page 2

ALONG THE COAST.

Portlier ferendo vincitur malum quod non evitari potest. What has our present mail contractor done to be served in the way he has been done 1 His tender was equally as low as that of the man who >3 to run the service. In fact both tenders were alike, viz., £l9O, and the preference should, to all intents and purposes, have been given to the present man. All through the past winter, (the most severe known on this cost for years) he has been always up to time, aye, and generally a day before his time, which I don't mind betting a new hat with anyone so inclined, will not be the case with his successor, who, whatever his experiences may be of other places, has none whatever of the East Coast road iu winter. He has no conception of the difficulties to be overcome, in properly carrying tut the nice little job he has undertaken, and I fancy will blow his fingers pretty often before he is well through with it. On the other hand the present contractor has had the experience of some 16 or 17 winters on this coast, and is in a position to provide against any contingencies that might occur to interrupt the service between Gisborne and Wuiupu. It is in my opinion the worst piece of road over which a mail is carried between Auckland and Wellington, and the difficulties which a new chum to the country ou this coast would have to surmount in bad weather are by no means a few, even with the best of horses, and a good many of them ; however, the thing is done, ana it would give us, i.e., the inhabitants of this part of the world, immense satisfaction, if the authorities would condescend to explain why they thought fit to take this important piece of work out of the hands of a proved compe* teut man, aud plaOe it in those of a hitherto untried one.

The road surveyed some time ago between Tuparoa aud the Waiapu river is still in its natural state ; nothing as yet having been done to it. The Natives doing the “ dog in the manger” business, will neither do it for a fair price themselves, or let Europeans work on it. Surely it is time this kind of thing was put a stop to, and these obstructionists taught that they are powerless to stop works authorised by the Government. There has been too much of this kind of thing going on here lately, and improvements of every description are at a standstill from the same cause. They say they only want the very moderate sum of 30s per chain right through to Waiapu, and considering that two-thirds of the way is all formation theit rt juest is modest indeed. What it is io put up with the wretched idiesyiiuraeks

of a parcel of savages, is only known to perfection to those who have to do it. Let us hope it will not be for long. The bush section of the Waipiro-Makarika road, that is the line branching to Waipiro from the main Ormond-Waiapu road at Makarika road, has been completed, and is certainly a very great improvement, the grade being exceedingly good ; the portion of the line from the end of the|last named section down the hill to Waipiro, is in course of formatian and should be finished before very long. The township of Te Awanui is in process of survey, and when finished will, I suppose, be sold, Kokako. Waiapu, 19th October, 1882.