The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 1916. THE PROGRESS OF TAIHAPE.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 160, 24 August 1916, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 1916. THE PROGRESS OF TAIHAPE.

(With which is incorporated The Taihape- Post and Waimarino News.)

♦ It is stated in that very excellent Gov ernment publication, "The Municipal Handbook," that, "Taihape is the largest town in the Rangitikei County." That it is the centre of a large and prosperous pastoral district; that the town is well laid out witn broad thoroughfares; that Taihape is a convenient place for travellers by the Main Trunk railway to break their journey, and that it is a scenic resort, having but few rivals in the whole Dominion. If Taihape residents will read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest toe above facts quoted from the Govern ment Statistician, it should rouse them to putting their house in order and to keeping it so. Taihape is the largest centre—that is the most populous centre—in the whole of the large Rangitikei County, which, we believe, is the richest, if not the largest, county in New Zealand, and yet its people are content to gjo on as though it were the merest village. It is dependent upon Wanganui for the management of its local hospital; the headquarters of the County Council are at the village of Hunterville, as a matter of fact this, the largest centre in the county, goes for months and never hears about county affairs, and therefore doesn't realise that it is in any county, unless it is those residents who are outside the borough boundary who are reminded of the fact by toe never-failing rate notice. .Whenever such ' a condition of things arise it will be found that best influences are not operating, and it becomes the duty of the principal centre to go to work and have pie centre to go to work and have county that is toe most populous roads are what one would expect in the newest of country settlements. True, Taihape is not a very ancient settlement, it has grown to manhood in quick time; it has hud all the responsibilities of providing fcr a large population, and of supplying a vast, densely settled sheep and nianeral farming- district, as well as of quite a large number of village settlements that have come into existence around it. The town is equipped with most modern sanitary, electric, and water systems; it has its public library and baths, a splendid fire prevention orgnisation, a well-kept, large hospital (swvernes

from Wanganui), and in fact, all that a large modern town needs. Unfortunately, too, it has its municipal loans, but with all it lacks that aspect of a metropolitan character that it is fully entitled to assume. Taihape is eminent ly, naturally a centre for hospital provision, and yet it remains only a cottage •hospital town managed . from a place 100 miles way. It is nothing short of a scandal to see hospital cases brought from the Taihape hinterland, extending fifty miles further from the hospital centre, having] to be carries by rail to Wanganui for treatment. It is more than a scandal, it is simply inhuman. Those who know from experience what a very serious accident is know full well that it is positively cruel to jolt men for a hundred miles further than they need to be carried. If residents and property owners of Taihape, those pioneers of this town who have just cause to feel proud of their foundling, wish to see it reach, not only its manhood, but also to assume all the responsibilities of manhood, with all their attendant advantages, it is imperative that they bestir themselves. We have great numbers of young men in our midst, with greater numbers growing to manhood, who are getting practically no education in local Government because we have but one local government institution in which they can be interested at present. It must be realised that Taihape is no longer a country village, and that mere fore it is of the utmost importance in cumbent responsibilities should no longer be shirked, in fact, there are the very strongest reasons why they should be assumed at the earliest possible moment. To have our hospital managjed in Wanganui tends towards local apathy, it must naturally do so; to have the headquarters of the county of which Taihape is the largest ana most important centre has resulted in not realising that a county council has the care of the many avenues of ingress and egress of the town under its control. These roads have become of gjreat and increasing importance owing to the rapid growth of settlement and population; to continue the far-away back-block treatment no longer synchronises with the Municipal Handbook's undeniable statement that Taihape is the largest town in the whole Rangitikei County. The people of other towns have been anxious to take on responsibilities of a metropolitan character, why is Taihape content to be manag/ed fromvWangamii and Kunterville, with the resultant poorly attended-to roadways arid the carrying of infectious diseases for a hundred miles in railway train's? We want no piecemeal, patchwork 'hospital arrangements or neglected ; safety of roadways where the traffic-!is heaviest, and the only sure remedy is for Taihape people to realise their duty to themselves and to each other.