PUKETUTU ROAD.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 228, 15 March 1928, Page 1

PUKETUTU ROAD.

DEPUTATION TO COUNCIL. Riding Member’s Policy. Aspersions Strongly Resented. Half-a-dozen settlers of Puketutu road, Matamata, waited upon the Matamata County Council at Tirau on Friday, asking for improvements to Puketutu road. Mr. F. Jones, the spokesman, declared for a start that it was about fourteen years since the road had been sanded. Several of the settlers could not get out during the winter, the road being impassable and bogging the vehicles. He had seen four motors bogged on one occasion, and they had to go back again. The gateways in front of Wright’s and other properties were impassable. There were several bad patches,, such as that near Mr. Blennerhassett’s farm. Councillor’s Road. Mr. Jones said the deputation did not consider it fair that two miles of Cr. Rollett’s road should be metalled while other roads were in such a deplorable condition. It was not right, in such circumstances, to spend a year’s rates upon that metalling. The other outlet was towards Waharoa, which was also a main road. Puketutu was the direct road from the railway, to Buckland road and Cambridge, and the speaker rather regretted that it had not been included in the main highways. The settlers did not expect the road metalled, knowing that the finances would not permit. But it should have been sanded, and the excuse for not doing so was that the council had not been able to get sand from Dalziel’s pit. The chairman (Cr. J. W. Anderson) corrected the speaker upon the lastmentioned point. The council had been negotiating privately with Mr. Dalziel, but whatever steps were taken there would not be the delay of two or three years as mentioned. Cr. Rollett’s Defence. Cr. H. Rollett emphatically denied that the money being spent on his road was out of general rates. It was loan money, and not general rates at all. Mr. Jones replied that there was only one mile of metalling specified in the loan proposal. Cr. Rollett: Yes, that is so. One mile of metalling had already been done, leaving only one mile to do.

Mr. Nelson Banks commented that the sand available, though poor, was quite good enough, aad had made part of the road good. Cr. Rollett added that it was not right to say that there had been no sand on the road for fourteen years, for sand would not last for that length of time. The engineer said that sand had been , put on about two years ago. Cr. Rollett went on to say that Puketutu road was not in a worse state than Mati road had been. It was bad enough for anything. Mr. Wright pointed out that the condition of Puketutu would not be so bad if the culverts were attended to. At Cross Purposes. Mr. Jones contended that at the meeting of ratepayers held some time ago the decision of the meeting was that the bad patches should be attended to, instead of the metalling that was being done. The engineer very emphatically declared that the meeting decided that the metal should be “ continued outwards ” from the then present metal. “ Bad patches get you nowhere,” said Mr. Fitzgerald. “ You can never catch the bad patches. The metal was to go from the railway station outwards.”

Cr. Rollett: According to Mr. Jones there should be nothing done to a road a councillor happens to be on until all the other roads were done. The chairman: The rates are not being used; it is loan and Government grant.

The engineer explained that Puketutu could hardly be done with the aid of the Government grant. The Department required a good standard; and this might imply four times the (Continued in Next Column)