URUTI ROAD DEVIATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 183, 9 January 1912, Page 8

URUTI ROAD DEVIATION.

To the Editor. ' Sir,—As it is very rarely that we vens ture to trespass on the valuable space . of your, paper, I hope you will kindly ' publish what we consider a substantial i grievance. ; After waiting about bud years ■ for something to be done in the way of I extending Uruti road formation—(not \ one single yard has /been added to this I road during all these years)—the Bettlers at last resolved to trv to urge the Government to do something for them, and with this end in vieW corresponded with. . the Hon. Minister for 'Public Worics. Ia , reply to our letter we received an as- ! surance that there was a vote on the I estimates of £2OO on, account of a sub- . sidy of £ for £ up to. £2OOO for the , deviation of' this road. This brought l joy to the "hearts of the desponding setL tiers, and a merry' hum replaced the [ melancholy which had held possession so , long. A meeting was called for tie pur- . pose of raising a loan to enable us to j take advantage of the proffered subsidy, and was well attended. It, was almost -. unanimously decided to raise the money , I (required, and an approximate rating area ,\was struck and submitted to the Clifton . County Council, when to oUr dismay it j was suggested'.by the local authorities . that there must be some mistake. How- . ever, we resolved to have the Minister's letter corroborated. We received the following reply:— I Public Works Department, T Wellington, N.Z., i Nov. 23, 1911.

' ÜBUTI £ FOR £ON ACCOUNT OF s £2OOO. Sir,—Referring to your letter of the ■ sth inst. to the Minister; of Public Works ■ regarding the purpose for whicMhe £ ' for £ sitbsidy on account of £2OOO 'for ■ Uruti road was provided, I have/to sta,to ; that the Clifton County Council is, in '[error in supposing that this money was voted for metalling a portion of the road already formed. On the contrary it was definitely provided for ihe purpose, of formation and tunnelling on deviation foe dray Toad.—l have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, W. S. SHORT, assistant under-secretary. Now we were right at last. There could be no mistake after receiving sHch • an assurance from the fountain head. But our feelings can he better imagined than described when, on having made preparations for. putting the work thro,ugh at once, another letter was received from the same Bource as the previous one, which exhausted our patience to the last degree." A coup de grace as a fitting finale.,. Here it is;— P.W. Dept., Wellington, Dec. 21, lftll. URUTI ROAD £ FOR £ ON ACCOUNT, £2OOO. Sir,—Referring to your letter of the sth November in reference to the purpose to which the subsidy vote of £2oooi for Uruti road is to be devoted, I have to state that further correspondence has been received from the Council, and upon investigation I find that the information conveyed in my letter of the 23rd November that the vote was to be used for formation, etc., on the deviation of Uruti road, was incorrect. The vote was really taken in pursuance of an authority issued in 1908 to the Clifton County Council for metalling purposes.—l have the honor, etc., W. SHORT, Assistant Under-secretary." Now could anything more humiliating and disappointing be imagined? There must be something radically wrong to permit this state of affairs, and we as a. body resent the treatment we have received at the hands of the Public Works Department—l am, etc., H. LARSEN. < Ureti, January 0. ii . 1