TARANAKI'S HINTERLAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 39, 11 March 1909, Page 4

TARANAKI'S HINTERLAND.

THE ROADING PROBLEM A NATIONAL WORK. Thu loading of the great back country ( of larauaki is a work 01 such a gigantic ' nature that it demands a special noeral- i ity of treatment by the State, it is i mainly a vast network of innumerable chains of small lulls, low-lying downs— I all admirable sheep country— which demands continual side roads, often uilficuuies ol loiiuatiou, running from tile ' main arterial roads. Then me country is principally of papa lonuatiou wiui '■ jiuieslone laud, occasionally cropping up ill the country verging on the jiaui I'rtink line. ISo metal in the whole vast area, the nearest source of supply being .Mount Egliiout. An excellent siiostitute is found in burnt papa, but the cost of this is considered a ban to its employment except where limber is in pieutij ml supply in close proximity to the papa. Here and there good supplies of siiell rock are obtaiuuule, and Ihis makes an excellent material for road formation, but there is a big difference ill its character, some, of it breaking up into a. mud under rain. In the western country the. country is largely of pumice formation, and the pumice, nothiug but dust in the : summer, makes a good winter road. Generally the cost of road construction is very high and the nature of the country is such that proper metalling is imperative. Ju view of the anscik-e ol meial the work of road-making through I the broken country to the back sections is such a burden on the settler that tile completion of the main road is imperative, and this as rapidly as possible. Every mouth accentuates the necessity of this, the increasing traffic over the new formation so injures it that the final formation is rendered all the more costly. The present maintenance is enormous. In many cases the actual cost of maintenance over several winters would have paid for the metalling. On the Mratlord- Whanganioniona road the maintenance .since its formation has been £25,000 which would have mclaled the unfinished portions several tunes over. Between W'liangaroa and Ongarue, a distance of twenty-eight miles, the annual cost of maintenance exceeds .020(11). This road in summer is passable, though it is inches thick in dust, but in winter it is one unbroken stretch of quagmire till the pumice is reached. The coach proprietor on this road lost no less than thirty horses last season, which can he easily understood when the coach is up to the axles for the b ieatcr part of the journey while for three months all traffic is impossible, the mail being brought through by pack horses, with great difficulty. The carriers can only take about lifty pound a piece, the journey of twenty-eight miles occupying from twelve to fifteen hours. DESERVING OF ASSISTANCE. There is no class in the community so deserving of assistance from the State as the incn clamouring for better mams of communication in the districts. Many of them have been co-operative labourers, whose only capital lias been a brave wife and a stout heart. As the woman has been the principle factor in clearing the section, the husband working on the roads to provide a means of living, any disadvantage arising from inability _io market produce is a double hardship. There are many eases in the districts referred to, where the roads have shortened the milk supply season by i several months, with the result that the income from the cows has been consid- , crablv reduced, while the cost of manufacturing the butter is greatly increased. To these hard working struggling settlers it is burden enough having to break in the bush land, fence it, and build a • house without being handicapped by • failure of the State landlord to com- • pletc the main arterial road or form that i to the section, which appeared on the i plan according to which the land was > selected. > RAPID SETTLEMENT. While the Government is to blame '' for land' being settled in a great inland ' district before means were provided of ' connecting it with a railway or port ' ] y- giving way to a clamour for bush lands, the dictates of common sense and •| the judgment of expert advisers showed ' this to be inadvisable till arterial roads - were provided—still splendid work has 1 been and is being done in roadmg that ' part of the country, Ten years ago I there was not a single road between Kawhia and the Taimgaraka Gorge ; to- ! day nearly two thousand miles of road- ' way are formed and a good portion of it 1 metalled. During the lion. Mr Hogg's ' journey from Stratford through to the 1 Main Trunk line, he was met with repeated requests for metalling, but he ' heard nothing but satisfactory opinions ' expressed by the settlers in regard to the work of the road engineers. Hut ' as bricks cannot be made without straw, ' so roads cannot be metalled without money. It should be explained in regard • to this matter of linauce that all crown lands are loaded with a certain sum per ' acre for the cost of reading. In the ease of tlic districts referred to, the loading ' ran from 2s lid to 5s an aero. In view, ' however, of the peculiar nature of (be country, the great distance from rail or | seaboard, the considerable extent of unlive land through which the road was ' to be taken and which bore no share of ' the expense, this loading was totally in- ' adequate. The settlers could hardly lie expected to meet any increased imposition, as their bye-roads are equally expensive to form, and being on secoml- ', class country, this charge is alone a sufficient burden on the land.

With a sympathetic Minister who has thoroughly investigated the position and realises the duty the Government owes to the pioneers who are against great mills bringing particularly difficult territory into cultivated areas there is every reason to expert that the main arterial roads in the Wlmngnmomona and the southern portion of the Te Kuiti lioad district will he completed and properly metalled without further delay.