PAPAKURA INDIGNANT WITH HIGHWAYS BOARD

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 30, 28 April 1927, Page 7

PAPAKURA INDIGNANT WITH HIGHWAYS BOARD

GRANT CONSIDERED PALTRY I think we should refuse to accept it. It is just an outrage. They are holding on to a huge sum of money and simply sit tight. Thus spoke the Rev. W. C. Wood at the last meeting of the Papak ira Town Board when the Main Highways Board offered a contribution of £1? towards payment for detour roads in the district. They are too autocratic, he said, and to say we are entitled to £lB is adding insult to injury. We should decline to receive the paltry sura of £lB. I move we don’t accept it. Mr. McEntee: I don’t like throwing money away, but it’s time we took a stand. Manurewa took a stand and Papakura is suffering. There is no doubt about it; we have suffered to a large extent on our detour roads, and to accept £lB insults our intelligence. They might just as well have? said eighteen pence for all the help It will be. I hoped for more generous treatment They have a huge sum of money whicli should be used, and still they want to sit on it. What sort of chicken they expect to hatch I don’t know. The chairman said he knew it was a small sum, but he thought th*\v should take all they could get and and would support a motion in that form—£lß would do a little, and he advocated “coming at them” for more. Mr. Boagey felt as the chairman did. It would not help to refrain from accepting the money. It would be better for a protest to be sent, and to point out how much the detour roads had suffered. He personally would like to see a protest sent, the sum being very paltry. “I would very much like.” he said, “to know how they arrive at this decision of allocating Papakura £lB out of £500.” Dr. J. B. Page: “I think £lB Is totally inadequate. If I thought they v.*ere people who had sufficient sense to see the point of us refusing to accept this £lB I would vote against accepting it, but I don’t think thev have.” Mr. W. Rhind: “It Is only what you night expect from the Main High wavs Board. It’s a disgrace to our intelligence, but if it’s only eighteen pence take it.” The Rev. W. C. Wood: “I see there are too many Scotchmen on the Board. | but 1 shall certainly not vote for it. It’s had the backing of the newspapers and the Automobile Association and not to accept it will neither make nor break Papakura. We are losing a splendid opportunity to show the Highways Board that to offer £lB for a detour road is nothing but an outrage. I ask you, are you going to take it lying down?” The board finally decided to accept Ihe £lB. and point out such was an insult, and requested the Highways’ Board to make a larger subsidy.