Wake Up, Clevedon!

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 294, 20 July 1917, Page 2

Wake Up, Clevedon!

! To the Editor"! Sir, — In your issue of July 6th, appeared an article by " Rip Van Winkle." Ido not relish entering into a correspondence with a person who is afraid to use his name but I am, however, inclined to believe we have a genuine " Rip " in the district after all, by reason of his seeming intimate knowledge of Noah and his husbandry—not to mention the wine. The assumption is that Noah, having planted his vineyard and made wine, beingof a generous nature, invited our " Rip," who was naturally a dreamer rather than a worker, to partake of the vintage, the aforementioned " Rip" took full advantage of Noah's offer, thus laying the foundation for an age, long sleep and violent headache ; and as iu those happy days a few hundred years counted little in a man's lifetime, probably a few thousand miles, made little difference to his journeying power. " Rip " in his befuddled state thus reached this part of the world and rested on those spawls, then in their natural state, in what is now known as the Wairoa Scenic and Quarry Reserve acquired for the district through the agency of the Wairoa Jtoad Board. Finding his bed uncomfortable he took refuge in a cave iu the vicinity, where he slept until the recent heavy rains dislodged him holus bolus on to one of our road«, and in his rage, and with his age and long headache born of Noah's wine still upon him, immediately commences to throw the mud, which accompanied him in his descent, about in all directions quite regardless of whom he may bespatter. Thus in his letters he visits the depredations of tho clerk of the weather upon the Road Board, the supposed delinquencies of that body upon the Council and vice versa. His examples are consequently most unfortunate.

Thus the damage on the ClevedonBrookby road caused by recent floods, is within the boundaries of the district controlled by the Papakura Valley Road Board. The bridge destroyed by the February llood on the Wairoa River Road was not under the jurisdiction of the Wairoa Road Board, but was on the boundary of the district controlled by that body and the Hunua riding of tho Franklin County. In the case of the ArdmoreAlfriston road the trouble is duo to a lack of a comprehensive drainage system, this it is hoped will be remedied in clue course as the settlers interested, together with the Wairoa Road Board, are co-operating in an endeavour to form a drainage board.

If "Rip" in his pre Hood days showed as much regard for actual fact as that contained in his letter of June i".ith and previous effusions, it is small wonder that Dame Van Winkle preferred to stay and face tho fury of the elements rather than come aboard the Ark with him.—l am, etc, JOHN LUKE Whakatiri, July Nth, 1917.