WHO ROADING

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 146, 19 August 1926, Page 3

WHO ROADING

DEPUTATION TO COUNCIL. Consequent upon their patience with bad loading conditions having become exhausted, several settlers interested in certain Waiomo roads waited on the Matamata County ] Council at Tirau on Friday, asking for improvements. The members of the deputation were Messrs. E. Harwood, D. O’Sullivan, T. Taylor, G. Dickinson and Mr. Frank Rose, of Tirau. { Mr. Harwood, who acted as spokes- j man, explained that the road (known | locally as Harwood’s road), the de-1 putation was concerned about parti- $ cularly, started at the Waiomo end 1 of the mesal, passed through to Roto- j rua road, lip to the smithy. The see- j enc! portion, known as Anderson’s i oafi, ran back to the Okoroire : Gprjngs. “ Unless something is done it will be worse than it has been for the last twelve years,” said the speaker. Eighteen months ago a contract was let, and they did not understand until too late that the work would not be gone on with during next summer. They wanted the road put into such order that the butcher and baker and the cream carter could get along, i Manures had also been hung up. Cr. W. H. Allen: It is the road I wanted you to make a main county road. The engineer said it was the old Te Aroha road. Mr. Harwood said that with the ex-

ception of one man, for a time, there were no men working on the road during the whole of the summer. It was only by the speaker's efforts alone that the road had been made passable. Cr. Darby: Did you, at election time, give your candidate a mandate to increase the rates to enable the work to be done. Cr. Allen: If they did, I was not the candidate. I do not think I got one vote from that end. (Laughter). The engineer (Mr. M. E. Fitzgerald): It has reached that state when a hard surface of some sort should be provided. Cr. Allen said that the finances were not good enough to allow him to do what he would have liked. The chairman pointed out that the old horse and dray had been superseded by the motor lorry, and this ■ latter traffic was responsible for the damage. If Cr. Allen increased his rates in the riding he would be able to do something. He moved that the engineer &nd riding member attend to the most urgent portions. Cr. Dee seconded.—Carried. The chairman added, in reply to another member, that the Tapapa road, all the way to Tirau, was considered by the works committee on Thursday night. Anderson's road was included in the improvements proposed. •' Cr. Darby commented that in his riding he had about £ls a mile to spend, but recently £B7 10s had to be spent on a few chains'. He was going to ask his settlers if they could provide, by increase in general rate, or special loan, j for the building of better roads for their local traffic to their properties. The present revenues were not sufficient.

Mr. Harwood pointed out that he and others were already paying full rates on the Springs road and others a couple of miles or more from their farms; they were paying both special and general rates, and when the terms of some of these expired they would be able then to afford to pay more towards purely local roads for modern conditions of traffic.