The Daily News. FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1913. PUBLlC WORKS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 304, 16 May 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1913. PUBLIC WORKS.

The Wellington Times states that a vote of £SOO has recently been made in the Waipukurau district towards the cost of building bridges on the short section of a new road at Waipukurau, the total cost of which is only estimated at £503. According to our contemporary, the section of road affected, which is being made by the Waipukunm County Council, is only a mile and u-lialf in length, and will run through the Newman estate and connect the Porangaliau road with the Hatuma station, and its only practical purpose will be to shorten a journey that can already be undertaken by a well-made road. It will not open up any populated district, as it traverses only one estate,.and will give to the owner of the property a double frontage for the wdiolc of the mile and a half through which it runs. If the facts are as our contemporary states the vote is a distinctly unnecessary one and the Government lias only itself to blame if the reproach is levelled at it that it is taking good care'of its friends, a charge which it, was wont to make with some acerbity against its predecessors. The amount involved is certainly not very large, but it would materially help upon some of the back-block roads which serve populous and thickly-settled districts. There would be no need for protest if the district to which this vote is to be applied were not already well-roaded, but Governments seem to run in eternal grooves, upon the principle of to him who hath shall be given, and the Reform Government is really little if any better in this respect than Ministries have been that preceded it. They build huge and extravagant railway stations and post offices and other public buildings at enor\mous cost, while the back country is : starving for roads and bridges. We have Ino objection, of course, to the proper ' equipment of our public services, but the I > ornate and elaborate extravagance with J which it is being conducted is not fair Ito the struggling settlers who have to find the money. The whole administration of the Public Works Fund is sadly / deficient and it requires a thorough revision, and much more careful scrutiny at the hands of Parliament than it is receiving at present. [Since the above was written we notice that Mr. George Hunter, member for Waipawa, has denied the Times' statement. He explained to a newspaper reporter that the , road in question was of no benefit to squatters. The Government, he said, had voted £SOO for the erection of bridges on the road, because the bridges already existing had been erected, by private individuals, and were in a highly dangerous state. The road ran through closer settlement, and as there was a school in the locality, children had to make use of it.]

A PAGE FROM THE PAST. A correspondent draws attention to the following items appearing in the News of June 7, 1875 (Vol. 1 Xo. 202), which he recently discovered whilst going through his papers. They should prove of interest to residents of the Moa Block:—"The Government will give a reward of £5 to anyone giving such information as will lead to recovery of the man Jones, missing from Inglewood, and supposed to have been drowned while attempting to cross the Maketawa river. —F. R. Carringfon, superintendent." Regarding the sale of land, in the Moa Block, old timers will probably remember the advertisements stating that land numbering from 00 to 178, and varying in size from 24 to 221 acres, and upset prices from £1 7s <3d to £2, were offered for sale by auction. The deferred payment system also was represented by applications being called for sections numbering from 110 to 176 and varying in size from 48 to 150 acres, with £1 .7s Od to £1 IPs as upset figure. A few ' township sections in Inglewood, numbering from 238 to 324, were also advertised. It would be interesting to know how many of the original selectors are still in the land of the living or are still holding their selections.—Under date June 4, 1875, an advertisement calls for tenders for bridge over the Waiongona river near Inglewood, and no doubt this structure is the one replaced by a concrete bridge a while back.—A tremendous advance can be noted in the class of steamer between then and now. At that time the Wellington, Taranaki, Ladybird and Phoebe were the regular traders, and old-timers no doubt cannot help but draw comparisons.—The editorial in the copy mentioned is upon the subject of concrete houses, and without doubt the arguments advanced then fit present conditions, and the writer must have seen his prophecy fulfilled as to what a big blaze would do.