OPENING A ROAD

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 914, 6 March 1930, Page 12

OPENING A ROAD

application to court REMOVAL OF OBSTRUCTIONS From Our Own Correspondent IVAII'KC, Wednesday. j An unusual application came before Mr. F. TI. Levien, S.M.. in the AA'aiuku | Magistrate’s Court this afternoon, Richard Walters, farmer. Aka Aka. seeking an order of the court compelling the Franklin County Council to serve notices on owners adjoining the eastern drain road between Aka Aka and Puni to remove their fences from across the road and thus make it open for the public. The defence was that the removal of the fences would not assist, as the road would still be unusable otving to its condition. For the applicant, Mr. J. AT. TTeise said that in response to a petition from 22 ratepayers in 1928 that the road be opened a committee of the council inspected the load. This committee reported that while the route would be convenient for driving stock between Aka Aka and Pukekohe and would shorten the distance by a mile, upward of £3OO would be required lobe expended on road formation and culverts to make it suitable for that purpose. Until this work was done it would be an undue hardship on adjoining owners to open the road and thereby* compel them to erect a considerable length of fencing. There was a Government grant of £2OO for covering the peat surface with clay on a portion of the road, and the petitioners wished to have this expended. The grant had now lapsed. In October last fiA*e petitioners, of whom Mr. Walters was one. again asked the council to serve notice on the adjoining owners to remove the obstructions across the road. The council had not complied, and Mr. Walters had taken the present proceedings. Counsel for the council, Mr. M. R. Grierson, stated that until the council had the money available to do the work mentioned in the committee's report it felt that no purpose would be served in opening the road. It was anxious to open it and do the clay surfacing as soon as funds were available for the purpose. The grant mentioned had appeared on the Estimates but had never been available for expenditure. Mentioning that he had been over the route, the magistrate said that as there Avere seven drains across the road up to about six loot deep and varying in width, lie could not see that the removal of fences would make the road a practical stock route, as both parties stated they were anxious to have the road open, and some of the settlers had indicated that they were prepared to do some work on it to this end, he suggested the parties confer with a view to coming to a workable arrangement, and adjourned the case for one month to enable them to do this.