THE OHURA ROAD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 17 April 1907, Page 2

THE OHURA ROAD.

Mlll-TTXC 01' KEiiIICSKXTATiVE jtjjlk; men. XIIK At'TIN'C IMtK.MIKU AM) Tllli IiACKJIJ.UCKS. ..-OMK I'I.AJX oPIvAIvIXU. (l!y Tcicgraph.— From our own Jieportor). ' Ktratford, April 10. A meeting of representatives of tin public bodies of Turanaki, convened by Whang.uuoinoiia sethcrs, was held in llio County olliiv to-night to consider the Afiiii.si.ci for I'uhiic Work., atiiiudc re tin' Olmiii road. There was a very good anil representative attendance. .Apologies were received for non-attendance from nonrepresented bodii's, expressing sympilhy with tin- movement. Mr ,1. McCluggnge ;\ t >olo« i ii s i'-J for tho short, notice of tin: meeting, lie went on n> say Unit hi' jbeucvcil Mr Ilall.fo.ns lmil ben misled, or he would 1101 ha vi' made J hi' stalemcnls hi' did concerning thi' < llium road. Thi' posiiiou w.i.i peculiar, and hi' bolievcu the ActingI'ri'iiiii'i's statements unit thoi" were for several miles lon- tin- road reserves and endowments, all the land, however, nut being freelndd. as staled by Mr llall-.lnues "It lakes .ciimi) a year to niainfain the road," the speaker continued, -and the revenui' from 1 hi' district is only .CHOO.'' Xhe dairv in-

dustry was languishing for metal roads. Many of fhciu were only passable four months in the year. He moved, Xhat tills meeting ot representatives of dairying, pastoral and commercial interests of Xaranaki very earnestly urges and respectfully advises the .Minister for I'ublie Works to deiity vesting the unmetallcd portions of Hie Oliura arterial road until a persona! inspeeton and investigation by himself, or Hie Minister for Lands, has been made as to the ability of tile Uistrict allected to undertake the rcsponsibiily, and the meeting reluctantly informs 'the .Minister lliat practical experience and unprejudiced opinion declares Ihe contemplated action to be unjust, iinancially unfair, and such, if carried into eilecty as will establish a clear instance of inei|iiitable government in regard to back country districts, where settlers have been precluded from fully sharing wicu other sections of the community advantages of the general prosperity enjoyed by the cities through me colony's long-continued default in

furnishing those State settlers upon waste lauds with adequate transit facilities by rail and road. -Mr Sexton seconded. 31 r MeCulcheon said that the crisis in connection with the back country roading had been reached, as evidently this was only n fore-runner 0 f the (iovornmcut policy in regard to them. Jt was impossible lor (he settlers to maintain the road if they had to levy a rate. A rate would bring in ,C2(lli a year for thii main road only. The settlers would nlso have to maintain the sale roads. Tiicy would soon have a rate that would be a serious rent on the back-block settlers. Sir Hall-Jones' arguments were spurious, specious and wrong, lie pro-ceed-ed to review the Minister for Public Works' statements. Mr Hall-Jones knew that the road serves a quarter of a million acres, yielding a profit of lis per acre. The speaker calculated settlers were paying interest on nearly halt a million sterling, and the Ministers' special pleading that Wellington should not be called upon to pay for the Ohura road was untrue. Wellington had never contributed one penny towards the cost o£ the road, ami until the. Minister could show he had spent an amount eipta! to that on which settlers were paving inl.crest, it was unjust to hand the road over to the ioeal body. Of

the .3(1 miles of road proposed to be vented only 12 were along freehold property. He instanced the loading of the Iluiakaina block, where the settlers wore paying more for road maintenance than for rent for their land. Seventy per cent of the original settlers had failed to make a do in Wluuigamomoiia and left mainly because the Minister of Public Works'hail failed in his duty. Dealing with the lack of education, he said two of the live little schools in the district were not lit for dogs. The Taranaki Education Board was entirely sympathetic, but the roads wove so bad that the Hoard was quite unable to concentrate in two of the schools that

were properly slall'ed. The ehiMivn's lacking (■■duration wa* sjiMy because 'Hip Public JVorks Department stood in tinway nnil would not. give the roads. Xo

doctor could be got lo live in -Die district simply because the settlers could not get the roads for which they had paid. ' If the (lazelte notice * went (hroug)l, it was for the North Island to ask if a recalcitrant Minister was to be allowed to stand in the way, for if this road were handed over to the county it wl'TO only the fore-runner of a similar policy throughout the island. He felt the hopelessness of the meeting, if the Minister were determined.

Mr Sexton laid stress on tile hardships ', of settlers, holding that what was practically a contract by the. Government to metal the road, should he carried out, or that concessions snouhl be granted settlers. Mr Jas. Thomson held that the particular disadvantage of the papa belt and the liability of slips on the roads, deserved special consideration. The county could not cope with them, lie believed that the Minister could hardly go hack on the statements now out of '$ ire ciissedness. Mr M'cCluggage pointed out that if the road were handed over; all othev Taranaki buck-blocks roads would be handed over to counties. Mi McCutchcon held thai no proposition had been made by the Minister except asking' the county to, take up the work that, had lieen 'condemned. He said the Minister of Public Works was a Mr King' reviewed the previous meeting, which sent a courteous motion, but got a discourteous reply. The. Minis-, tor was wrong in stating that Taranaki did nol appreciate the work done by the Government, as the elections of the last twelve years proved. It could only he called spite on the part of the Minister, because of the agitation in Hie district, The Government surplusses should be used for roads and. bridges. Why should the back countrv settlers he deprived of educational facilities solely because of [he want of roads? The motion was carried unanimously,