COUNCIL OBJECTS TO “POLITICAL PULL”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 329, 14 April 1928, Page 10

COUNCIL OBJECTS TO “POLITICAL PULL”

MATAMATA HIGHWAYS TOWN BOARD CASTIGATED (From Our Own Correspondent) PUTARURU, To-day. “The Matamata Town Board is looki ing at this matter in a wrong light. ! The Main Highways Board was set up { to be free of political influence, and : so that there would be better reading of the Dominion.” In these words. Or. J. AY. Anderson, at the meeting of the Matamata County Council yesterday, began a castigation of the Matamata Town Board. It followed the reading of a letter from the latter, which upbraided the council for not supporting its efforts in endeavouring to obtain the Matamata - Gordon-Te Arolia road declared a main highway. In a previous letter the Town Board stated they were approaching members of Parliament for the adjoiningdistricts, and asking them to use their influence with members of the Highways Board in getting the request passed, after it had been rejected. Continuing. Cr. Anderson said the proper channel for such requests was through the district councils. All highways were supposed to lead through the various counties of the Dominion. Local bodies should give and take, and use their judgment to suit the county as a whole, and not one particular part. Of this road there, was only one mile in the town district, and ten were within the Matamata county and 14 in the Piako county. Five thousand six hundred miles of road throughout the Dominion had been applied for by various bodies, and only 3,000 were to be allocated, and it was ridiculous to expect every road they wished' for to be included. In the No. 2 District, 320 miles had been asked for already, and 194 allocated out of a total of 250. The District Highway Councils were the connecting link between local bodies and the Main Highways Board, and this was the channel they should use, and not “political pull.” REVERTING TO BAD OLD DAYS In some districts he believed such councils were not functioning as expected, and had not met for two years, but he felt they should stand firm and hold on to the powers they had. There had been some talk of extending these powers, but that would not be done unless district councils put ginger into their work. The board’s request was simply reverting to the “bad old days.” The council strongly supported Cr. Anderson’s views, and it was unanimously decided to tell the Matamata Town Board that the council’s previous decision was arrived at after mature consideration, and that it still definitely objected to any proceedings for declaring roads main highways being put through any other channel than the local district council, and that it refused to support the board’s efforts to reopen the question through members of Parliament.