NEW SHORT CUT TO THAMES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 498, 30 October 1928, Page 12

NEW SHORT CUT TO THAMES

WORK AT HAURAKI PLAINS The Kaihere settlement and the southern part of Tlauraki Plains will have a metal road connected ’ with the main highway at Kerepeehi in about a fortnight’s time. For 16 years the settlers have been in the mud, but last session Parliament instructed the Lands Drainage Department to install a ferry over the Piako River to connect the Ngarua Road with the metalled road on the unsettled Kerepeehi block. The instructions to the Lands Department also provided that an arrangement was to be made with the Hauraki Plains County Council in regard to the cost o£ running the ferry, and this was generally thought to be an obstacle, as the council was authorised last summer to borrow money for the metalling of the Ngarua-Ngatea Road. This work has already commenced, and will be finished this summer. However, the council agreed that the ferry should be run for 12 months on trial, the profit or the loss to be shared equally by the department and the council. It will be available day and night.

The old Orongo-Kopu ferry pontoon has been secured, and is now being overhauled at Kerepeehi. The approaches have been made and metalled, and the bridge over the Awalti canal, near Kerepeehi, can be completed in a day or two, when required, or when a dredge has proceeded up the canal. In addition to providing an outlet for Kaihere and Patetonga, the new road will be a short route between Thames and Morrinsville, or between the Te Aroha-Morrinsville district and Auckland.