Correspondence

Te Aroha News, Volume XXII, Issue 42755, 1 August 1905, Page 3

Correspondence

WTe do not hold ourselves responsible for the opiuions expressed by our corespondents. [To the Editor.] Sib, —Haring frequently to go oror the roads in the Piako County one .cannot help being astonished at the muddy state they are in; frequently

nearly up to the axles, and it is also evident that although the county rate is increasing the roads generally are in a much worse state than they were ] some years ago, Now what is this brought about by ? It would seem that when a body of men have more money to spend the roads ought to bo

' .getting in a better, instead of a worse state; but' take the Morrinsrille-Te V Aroha road or the Matamata-Waitoa road. These are far worse now than they were a few years ago. I am awaxe that owing to the Assets Board cutting up their estates the traffic over the road* has considerably increased, which may partly account for the roads getting bad; but I consider that the one great cause is the failure on the

pan. oi iuh county uouncil to have the roads repaired at the right time of the year. For this state of affairs the County Councillors are greatly to be : blamed;,and the foreman ought not to be used as a scapegoat. Many of the \Councißors have been on the Council ..for a number of years. If they were ever going to learn they ought to have known'by this time it it only makes roadsworseior the following winter to mend them in the late autumn as was done in many instances this year: What the Council ought to do is raise a loan and get the main roads metalled so that the inhabitants of the County would be able to get their produce to market or get their inilk to the factories, which in many parts of tbe county they cannot do at the present time. If this were done it Would helD to make the muoTi

more prosperous. The cost of getting atones carted on to the roads would, where ever the roads are near the . railwav, be very little more than what is paid for sand at the present time, aha Would bo much more lasting. It is to be hoped that the Council will do something in this matter of raising a loan so th at the settlers will not continue to be handicapped in the Fiako County by having almost impassable roads to go over.—l am, etc., J. C. Allin.