WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 58, 26 July 1912, Page 8

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

LAX METHODS SOMEWHERE! At the Whangamomona County Council meeting on Wednesday the state oi , the main road and Mangare road, and, J the laying down of tlie tramway along \ them by the Public Works Department caused a fair amount of discussion. In answer to Cr. McCuh-han, the chairman said it was true that the Public ] Works Department had forbidden wheeled traffic on the Mangere road. He understood that the Department intended to charge 12s fid a ton for the conveyance of goods between Mangere road and Whangamomona. Seeing that the Department had blocked their road, j these settlers were, he thought, entitled I to free carriage. The intention was that the tramline on the main road should be kept on the side of the formation, and the bridges planked so that the rails would not interfere with wheeled traffic.

Cr. 'McCutchan protested against th'e '•'cavalier fashion" in which the Coun- j cil was being treated by the Public Works Department in the matter. The engineer seemingly declined to give the Council any reply to representations made by interviews with the chairman, I and did just as he liked. Now they found the public roads stopped to traffic, and men other than county men working on county bridges. If an accident occurred to the travelling public the Council would probably be held responsible. The Council had no undertaking that the Department would hand back the roads to the Council in the same good order as they were in when practically taken over by the Department. He thought the Public Works Department should legally take over the road, as had been proposed should be done. The whole position was very unsatisfactory, and the settlers were up in arms about it.

The matter was subsequently referred to the county solicitor, who said it would be wise to have the road gazetted as a Government road, or to secure from the Department an indemnity sufficient to protect the Council. He did not think the Government had power to prohibit wheeled traffic on a road other than a Government road. The chairman said he had a verbal undertaking from the district engineer that the Department would take over the road, maintain it, and hand it back to the Council in -the same order as they got it. Cr. McCutchan moved, and Cr. Diggins seconded, "That the resident Public Works engineer, be written to, pointing out the unsatisfactory position in which the local County Council has been placed by the action of the Public Works Department in effect taking control of sections of the Manga re and Ohura roads in the central riding and regulating traffic thereon." The motion was carried.