THE BACKBLOCKER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 283, 22 April 1911, Page 3

THE BACKBLOCKER

WANTED-A DRAY ROAD. ' i '•'So near and yet so far," is the cry of the unfortunate settler in the Rerekapa. Only another mile and a half of road to be done, but no money to do it with. This is apparently the state of affairs at present. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick, and the settler feels very sick at heart when he finds that although some few hundred pounds have been spent mi the Kiwi road he is no nearer to civilisation by a decent road than he was 17 years ago, when he first took up land on the distinct understanding that within a reasonable time he would have a road. Does the majority of people understand what the want of dray access means? It means that the settler cannot have his house decently furnished, for the reason that it is impossible for him to get furniture of any size or weight along the tracks'provided. It means that instead of being able to live at a reasonable rate he has to pay a big price for packing. Tt means that in the autumn he must provide himself with most of the stores that he will need during the winter, and this generally at aVig cost. It means that he has to pay for the necessaries of life three and four months before he requires them. It means that his grass seed and fencing wire cost him £3 to £5 per ton more than it should, as it mast all be packed, it means that his' children receive no education, except the little that might 'be imparted .by parents, and as their time is fully occupied from daylight to dark the facilities for teaching or being taught are small. It means these and a hundred other things that are not dreamed of by the townsman. Yet these are the men who make wealth for the Dominion. They work to earn a few pounds to spend in bushfelling and improving their small holdings, yet they are not provided with, that'absolute necessity—a dray road. Fancy being within a mile and a-half of. a good dray road, and that the road is useless to them, as it. is not get-at-able. For the want of the expenditure of from £ISOO to £2o(>'i a district is held back thus. 'Why should this be? Surely the settler is deserving of the benefit of a dray road after an existence of 17 years in the backblocks, and. further, the work should be pushed on immediately, not kept hanging on for years in the Kathleen Mavourneen style. The district is moving ahead slowlyvery slowly —on account of the want of a road, but it would move at a great pace and become productive if the. work were vigorously pushed on. It will be_ a fine stock country if facilities of access are. given, but the risk at present is too great for most people, to undertake the driving of any large stock. It is quifc the 'duty of" the Minister for Public Wrirks to devote some attention—and, say, £2ooo—to the development of this I district.—Waitara correspondent.