OTAKI GORGE ROAD.

Shannon News, 25 January 1924, Page 4

OTAKI GORGE ROAD.

RATEPAYER’S CRITICISM. THE CHAIRMAN’S REPLY. ' Following are extracts from a lengthy letter road by the Horowhenua County Council at its meeting on Saturday from Mr. Arthur Seed, agent for thp receiver of the “May Morn*’ Estate: < ‘ Otaki Gorge "Road —I have recently been obliged to use the above road fairly frequently and I wish to state at this outset that the condition of the road is a standing disgrace to your Council and a monument to the seeming incompetency of your engineer and the seeming indolence of the. roadman. Long stretches of this road are certainly in good order (but this is rathci in spite of the foregoing than any credit) and it is that fact that the frequent bad stretches are comparatively short that makes its state all the gnsatdr dis-c-race.' Owing to-the absolute neglect and awful state of a certain portion of the road I had the misfortune to break the bevel pinion of my Ford car and 1 intend to claim upon your Council tor this cost of the rosultant repairs. There is prcceedcnt. upon which this claim will be based for every Council has a duty to its ratepayers m respect to the reasonable repair of open roads. I understand that th(s disrepair of certain portions of this'road is due to •heavy traffic (firewood) which your Council has allowed to continue without adequate provision for repairs made necessary by such heavy traffic. This is a neglect of duty to other ratepayers and usjsrs. I would remind you that on behalf of the May Morn Estate and my own property in the Gorge, I am responsible for very considerable rate payments to your Council ai d together with rates collected from otnefs along > the Otaki Gorge Road these payments certainly warrant that at least some attention should be paid >jj y° ur Council to maintain the road in reasonably useful condition. I shall be glad to know therefore by an early mail wliat steps your Council proposes to take to put this road in repair, for otherwise, I must arrange for inspection to be made by an officer of the Public Works Department with a vie to having compulsory repairs effected as piovidcd for under Section 157 of the “Counties Act, 1920.” , s At the conclusion of the letter the chairman said: “I know Mr. Seed and I am really more than surprised that a man of his.business experience and ability should waste hi's time ,and the time of the Council in this way. Brief; ly what he wants is .repairs to the Otaki Gorge Road. Still I won’t say that it

has been altogether waste of time as it has afforded us a good deal of amusement, at least it has mo, anyway. If any road in the County has been expensive it is this one. Regarding the ratres Mr. Seed talks about, the main portion is on special loans. The land in the Gorge was originally bought very cheaply and mortgaged to foim roads through it. We only collect these rates and hand them on to the mortgagee and we don’t get paid for doing it.” In quoting figur.es on the rate collections in the area, Mr. Monk said that only £143 16s lOd general rates were collected in the year. This was all the Council had to spend on the road even if it had no other charges to' meet from the amount. Every year more than £l5O was spent on the road. If the roadman did not put in all his time it was-always made up with casual labour. There only had to be a heavy shower and the water tables would be full although the roadman might have been ovter it only the day before. The banks were very steep and the material very loose. It was decided to reply that the Council had spent all the rates • that were available upon the road.