The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 1919. THE RUANUI METALLING PROPOSAL.

Taihape Daily Times, 20 June 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 1919. THE RUANUI METALLING PROPOSAL.

With which its incorpo-ratzed “The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.”

In this young country much of the responsibility for provision for roadmaking, and bridging, is thrown upon the set.tl-ers who have taken up the land. These men have to give the security of their farms for the necessary money wh-crewifh -to have made the roads whereby the getting out of their produce a.nd the getting in of their supplies must come and go. The State, realising that the grea.t body politic benefits from every road made and bridge ‘built, most frequently undertakes to pay an amount equal to what the farmers make theinselvcs liable for; and it is largely by an arrangement of this kind that most of the roading and bridging nowadays is made possible. If this method of raising the wind continues, and ‘there are not indications to the contrary, the Taihape district ~-will-have ~, ro.ad—ma.king and -road-metalling loans to raise for many years into ‘the’ future. For years the roughly-formed roads ‘in ‘the Ruanui Riding of the Rangitikei County have needed improving to make them practicable and possible for the prapidly-'i‘nereas'ing trafiic they are called upon to bear, to » say nothing of the desirability, from the State point of view, of making the roads such that produce may be got out with the least amount of labour arrE‘_l,{,E§,_l;_g.;:,i,a-"_;lre.rnlinilllurn of cost‘, for, of cotffse, economy in providing ‘transit means a -comparative "increase in value of exports, from which all benefit. It will, therefore, be seen that it is of the utmost ‘importance that the_ State should not under-estimate its duties and respons'ibilities in eificiently roading terr'itor'ies that are highly productive of those riches whereby all live, townsmen or farmers. The Stat.e’s, share in road-making gives to the public the means of -travelling from place to place, town to ‘town, though having no business whatever with the farmers whose lands they pass through, which their ‘owners give as security for the money that made the roads possible. What we urge is that -when ‘settlers are prepared to make themselves liable for road conveniences they should be met with open arms by the State, for theirs is the best evidence that the reading .they advocate has become a necessity. The State should not meet such men parsimroniously; the utmost the State can do in accordance with law and established usage should be extended to those men, for there-"is nothing more essential or conducive to utmost volume of .production at lowest possible outlay for labour and transit. tllan good roads and bridges. As before, stated, there is much of such roadniaking yet to be done in this district, and the subject ‘is bl'ollght under notice by settlers in the Ruanui Riding of the County ‘having called a meeting in Taihape to discuss a proposal to raise a loan of £45,000 for road im-' provement purposes. Metalling is urgently needed in the Ruanui district, and the R-angixtikcil Cfountgr C7‘ulu-zil realising this, had a schedule of the most urgent works prepared, and the Minister of Public VVorks was approached to ascertain whether the usual State aid would be forthcoming. A deputation to the Minister was f-av»our—-ably received, and given tolerable. perhaps liberal, satisfaction. It may be mentioned that the £45,000 are to be spent. over -a. very wide area, but whether ingress and egress is given over that great area of productive country which will render it safe and convelhient to travel over ‘in any season, yet depends upon the meeting to be held next. Week. The metalling proposal takes--in 40% miles, the details of which are as followes:—— . 1

The loan WO11ld»:}b;;'alS§3:(l from the'‘ Public Trustee, ‘the interest being 5% per cent‘, and the sinking. fund 1 per cent, which repays the loan in 36 years. It is probable this great metaltling Work willtalie from 3 to 4 years to complete; but there is this pleasing feature that the Government has indicatéd its willingness to liberally subsidise; and -that the amount of the loan ‘will-be reducible by the amount of the subsidy received. The County Engineer has intimated that if this urgent. work of metalling is to be proceeded with during the coming summer it is very necessary that preliminary steps should be completed as early as possible, as some 14,000 cubic yards of ballast must be taken from Ohingaiti, and this can only be hauled during Winter, while traiiic is slack. It is estimated that a rate «of Ed in the £1 will furnish ample for payment of interest -and sinking fund, and as the rate proposed is to be struck over't-he Whole riding, no settler will be put. to ‘unfair disadvantage. Of course, there may be cases in which one settler here and there fails to have roads in his locality included in the scheme, and be it s°aid to the credit of such men they almost invariably sink all notice of an injustice, which is mor-e “apparent than real, and willingly throw in their lot for the good of the district as :3. whole. If any metalling scheme were rejected because it did not, and could not, provide for expenditure whereby all contributing settlers had an equal share allocated to their p'ar'ticular thoroughfare, there never would be any metalling scheme‘ adopted, be-0 cause any such scheme hasnever yet been evolved, and never will be. Greater facility for travelling throughout the Ruanui Riding is given, and we seriously state we are of opinion that the actual selling value of all land inthe Riding will be raised a penny in the £1 «at .least, for every id it is made responsible for in carrying out. the lil‘uch-need-ed metalling proposed. Then seti‘lel'_s .rnust realise that money at the present time is~—-plentiful and cheap; that from the present ‘time on ,money is almost certain to become dearer from the huge reconstructive work for.._Wllic,h it will be required. Money must become more lsearce if reconstructi-on is to be commenced, for reconstruction can only be accomplished by theeexpenditure of the money that is now lying idle. We do not think any settler will commit the folly of acting upon the thought that labour will be »any_cheaper; there may be more available in the course of a few months, when all New Zealand soldiers have returned, but so long as cost, of living is high, wages, will not be reduced. "Wages yyill be_ governed by wliuat they will buy in necessaries of life, and needs of the home. WV-e believe Ruanui Riding settlers are at. their cross-roads, and we sincerely hope that they will fully Weigh any tliouglit. of opposing the .loan proposal ‘of the Council, because rejection or adoption will be found the precise diflfereiice between progress and stagnation of land selling values throilghoutsthe Whole riding, to say nothing of the immensely increased public conveniencey and-anaid to cheaper prorluction-'b_vl ‘ii’.-llllcll‘. each individual settler will be ‘largel-y«~l)enefited.

Expcifc]. Road s Chains £ Taihapc-Hihituhi road . . 508 6,096 VVaim'uhe road . . . . . . 530 6,360 Maukugu road. . . . . . . . . 4.0 480 Owhakura road . . . . . . 224 2,688 Turakina Valley road, - Wnaiaruhe to Me.Donald’s . . . . . J. . 152 1,'82.4 Turakina. Valley road, i McDona1d’s to MeHa.rdy’s .. 390 6,385 } Mataroa - Ruanui to Turakinia. River . . . . 800 15,200 Mafa1'oa-Mangaweka road 40 320 Ngawaka. road . . . . . . . .. 365 3,650 Kaimata,wi road . . . . . . . . 100 800 Ksakariki Toad, . . . . 105 1,050 j 5 “ , 3,254 £44,853 333;