PATETONGA ROADING

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 571, 25 January 1929, Page 16

PATETONGA ROADING

THREE YEARS’ PROGRAMME (From Our Diva Correspondent) NGATEA, Thursday. A contract has been let by the Lands Drainage Department for the metalling of over eight miles of road in the Ratetonga riding of the Hauraki Plains County. The estimated cost of the whole work is over £17,000, of which the settlers have authorised a loan of £4,971 and the balance is being found by the State. The successful tenderer is Mr. R. L. Worth, of Te Puke, and the work will take three summer seasons. The first section, which is to be completed within 14 weeks of the signing of the contract, is the three-mile stretch which will link the Patetonga township with the metalled road to Morrinsville at the Maukoro Landing Road on the Hauraki Plains-Piako county boundary. Approximately 2,500 cubic yards will be required for the first course, and the programme includes the completion of this next summer, together with the metalling of the four-mile section of the road to the northern part of the Plains as far as the Manga - whero corner. In the third season the metalling will be linked up with the Hauraki Plains metalled roads at Kaihere and 100 chains of the Patetonga tram-line road will be done. The contractor is required to open a quarry cn the Hauraki Plains County Council’s quarry site at Maukoro and deliver the metal to the Lands Drainage Department on the road. This will necessitate access being provided up a gulliy and the improvement of the Maukoro Landing Road. The department will recondition the roads prior to metalling, provide clay to fill depressions. and for haunching, and will spread the metal. The first of this work commenced on Monday. The price of the contract has not yet been divulged, but an indication of the cost of the whole work was given in a communication to the Hauraki Plains County Council concerning the payment of its share and of the Government subsidy. For the period to March 31 next the council has to find £660 and the Government £2,640: for next summer’s work the allocations are: Government £ 6,400, county £1,600, and for the 1930-31 season the subsidy will be £4,573 and the county contribution £1,256. This metalling work was one of the major recommendations of the commission which inquired into Patetonga district grievances some years ago, and the completion of the scheme will provide all-weather access to settlers who have been isolated every winter, as well as a short alternative route between the Waikato and Auckland, via Hauraki Plains and Pokeno.