HARDSHIPS OF THE BLACKBLOCKERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 April 1919, Page 6

HARDSHIPS OF THE BLACKBLOCKERS.

NEED FOR ROADS. i STRONG DEPUTATION TO MINISTKUS. j The disabilities anil hardships that the settlers who g<> into the backblocks and their wives and children have to sutler through the of loading facilities was strongly represented to the Ministers of Public Works and Roads during their recent visit to Whangamomona. On Tuesday afternoon the party were motored along the Mangare road, some four miles from the township, and here horses were provided, and they road for some three miles along a track that has had to serve settlers for the last twelve years. The first mile and a halt, is what is known as a twelve-foot track, but its width in places can be guaged by noting the wheel tracks of a cart that had recently carted bridge timber. These tracks had to go perilously close to the edge, at times almost overhanging the cliff, in order to negotiate narrow places where there had been slips. The marvel was that there were not capsizes. The settlers, however, consider their troubles over when they reach this road on their way out, because further back it is merely a six-foot track, reduced in places to three feet through slips, and these places are usually at dangerous corners The mud to be met with now in shaded sections of the road gives some indication of its state in the winter, and one can quite realise that the women folk never get out during the winter, never see another woman for months at a time, and in case of sickness have a heart-breaking journey out. This road is only one of many. Some money has been placed on the Estimates but the settlers desire a deviation. There is at present a tunnel on the saddle, through which one has to duck one's head when riding, and the settlers wish another tunnel constructed lower down, giving a much better grade and Baving a mile of track. Some suspension bridges are being erected further in, but they are only to be four feet wide, and as the trr is ultimately to be 12 feet, they wil. a bar.

Messrs Revell, Saywell and Dagg, settlers, met the party and explained matters fully, one settler sftating that though only 10 miles from Whangamomona station it cost him £1 per bale to get his wool carted, irrespective of the time he handled it because it had to be packed out in sacks and rcbaled. At the banquet in the evening soma strong speeches were made on the subject. Mr. Geo. Stockwell, who has been on a six-foot track for 18 years, the six feet, as he explained, being four feet wide and two feet deep, pointed out that many settlers in the old days who took up land could not wait for the arrival of the six-foot track. They went into the bush, blazed a track, packed their tent, tools and food on their backs and proceeded to improve their sections. These were strenuous times. After they had felled the bush and grassed their sections they required a track to get cattle in. After a while the six-foot track came. They were led to believe that the six'-Toot bridle track was a temporary means of access, but it was still their only access. They had had numerous promises. Indeed, if promises would have made a road they would have had one long ago. Every one knew the disabilities attending the settler on a six-foot track, and what applied to the men applied to the women a hundred fold. In 1904 the Seddon Government passed the Bush and Swamp Land Act, giving the first four years rent and rates free. Lured by cheap land, settlement progressed so fast that 20 roads were required instead of one. What was wanted waß a roading policy to give settlers roads. It was not the, question of tenure that was disturbing the settler: it was the want of access. Had the Land Commission's report been acted upon it would have been worth untold gold. When a Bettler took up land he had three conditions to comply with. First, he must pay a certain rent; second, he must effect certain improvements; and, third, he must reside on the section. If it. were binding on the State to provide roads he could comply successfully with all of them, but without roads he could not comply successfully with either of them. Lack of roads increased his cost of living enormously, as he had to pay 3s to 4s per cwt. for his flour, etc. to be packed, and it also reduced his returns, as he had to pay 10s and 15s per bale to get his wool to the railway, so that the further back he lived the less he actually got for his land. He had known of women going for months without seeing another woman, being isolated during the winter because it was too dangeroys for them to go on the so-called six-foot track. In Whangamomona even they were 40 miles from a doctor, What, then, must be the position in case of sickness 20 mileß further back, nine or ten miles of which was bridle track, over which women had to be carried in time of sickness? Was it, he asked, fair to expect women to go through that? Lack of educational facilities was a great drawback, though this had greatly improved since provision was made by the Department for grade 0 schools. Still in cases where there were not sufficient children for these schools it was impossible to get a governess to face the isolation out back, and many settlers had to pull out and abandon their holdings in order to obtain educational facilities for their families. They were helping to pay for the education of other people's children, and were surely entitled to consideration for their own He quoted three cases where settlers, after 8, 10 and 12 years' hard work, had had to abandon their holdings owing to lack of roads, leaving the district poorer than when they came in. He asked the Hon. Minister of Public Works to tell the settlers where they stood. He had been 20 years on his section and had a six-foot track still. To ask the settlers to be patieht was, he considered, to insult them, and he thought the Minister should be fair and tell them just where they stood. Mr. Moss had been for 5J years on a three-foot track, with his wife and two children.

Mr. Dagg had held his section 12 years, and during that time the 12-foot road had been made ft length of one mile and 38 chains. He instanced cases where settlers had to send their families out to Whangamomona so that they could be educated. Mr. Bacon had resided on the Tirohanga road for 10 or 12 years, and was still on a six-foot bridle track which had an unbridged creek, impassable after a little rain. On one block the settlers had no road after Six years,though the land had been valued high for the purpose of putting in a dray road. tin <}evuaa«G4 oad* a

track three feet wide a distance of 22 miles to the Wanganui River, and six miles of this had been widened to a 12-foot dray road. This road had cost thousands and contained no settlement; indeed, lie understood it had only been used three times. He would like to ask what kind of a policy that was. How did they expect settlers to carry out improvements without roads?' Yet they were expected to do so or to forfeit their sections. He also took exception to the present system of valuation.

Mr Lowe, a settler on the Marengae block, also gave a graphic account of the tribulations of the backbiocker. Ten years ago when the block came out the plans showed proposed roads and they entered the ballot on the understanding that they would get roads. He referred at length to the strenuous times they put in from the time they first made a raft to cross the river to their section until, tired of waiting, they blazed a track. It took the Government five years to put a track through the block of 5000 acres in the ten sections all taken up. Two miles of the track had been widened to a dniy road, but was useless, as there was no place to turn. After ten years they had to pack everything from whence they did at the start. He also referred to the excessive valuation placed on the land in recent years and the disadvantages of the renewable lease as compared with the O.R.P. It might be said that men should not take their wives into such country, but he considered men who tackled that country were men of grit who should be enoouraged in every poasilbe way. "Give us," he concluded, "roads by all means. It will put such heart into us as you little dream of. Roads would break down the' isolation of the backblocks, which he did not know how the women stood. They had no pictures, no theatres and not even the prospect of meeting other women for months at a time.

Mr. Payne, of Rerekapa, also spoke. He saw no reason why these conidtions should bo allowed to exist. Money could be got for roading, What the country wanted was settlement, and it must have roads. It was highly important that the country should be developed, and without roads men would have to leave tlieir properties which would go back to scrub and fern. It was only right for the Government to tell the settler if roads would be provided. If they could not afford to do so it was either a case of the settler "getting out" or the Government doing ditto. They did not ask for promises but a straight out reply. Mr. Jennings, M.P., said that he sympathised with the backblocks settler, whose drawbacks had been so eloquently portrayed.

THE' MINISTER'S EEPLY. Sir William Fraser said that he quite recognised that there was no spirit of hostility iri the remarks, and he knew that the stories told of the troubles of the backbloeks settler were only too true. When lie took up the position of Minister of Public Works he saw how difficult it would be to remedy it. To a certain extent the people were to blame, as some years ago a great and very natural desire was evinced by people to get 011 the land. They would brook no delay, and tile land was thrown open. He favored the policy of roading the land before throwing it open for settlement. He pointed out that while New Zealand was a very pleasant country to live in it was one of the most difficult and expensive to road in the world. Dealing with the delay in the past he pointed out that during the last four years it had been almost impossible to get labor. In 1014, he had expended a record amount in road works. After that both money and men being required to win the warbecame scarce, and the amount available for all parts was infinitemal. For the past two years money had been easier, but the manhood was not here, and who would say that it was not right that our manhood should have gone to the assistance of the Empire? The moral effect, apart altogether from their splendid record, was great. Had we not won the war. these tracks would not have mattered. There had been mistakes in the past but it was no us» talking of them. He would say on behalf of the present Government that, it had done its best. His staff of engineers was just one half what it was before the war, and the engineer in charge of this district had much too large a district. Mr. Stockwell might have pointed out that his road had been widened to the top of the hill, and he had quite lately authorised another loan to continue the road, and when that was expended he would say "go on and finish it." That would be his policy as long as he was in office. With regard to Mangare road there was an item on the Estimates, but he was told that it would not be wise to spend this on the present track as there was a probability of a better track and tunnel that would save over a mile.

Mr. Lowe said that the money could be spent on the lower end without waiting for the deviation. ' The Minister stated that he had asked the engineer to finish his survey and see whether the tunnel load on to a spur which would carry the road, and if found not satisfactory the money could be expended on the present road. If ithey could persuade the engineer to start as suggested by Mr. Lowe he wonid be satisfied, as he had perfect confidence in the 'engineer. The utmost endeavor would be made to get labor. He pointed out that the particular road passed through very rugged country, and the cost of maintenance would be very high. Speaking personally he would not have allowed the settlement to go on the land before the roads, and he hoped that the same mistake would not be made in future. Another big mistake was that when laying out a block roads were made to fit the sections instead of sections being made to fit the roads. Engineers should be first set to lay off the roads, not surveyors. Then there would not so often be the necessity of deviating because roads were laid off up such grades that it was impossible to metal them. He hoped that the main roads through each lilock would be laid out in an intelligent way. They could take it from him that, ns far as money and men were available he would do everything in his power to ninlke conditions better for the men in the back blocks. "Though," he added, "what is that but a promise?" He had told tliera what he desired to do but could not make roads without labor, and there was both a scarcity nf officers and men. It was impossible to get help from the settlers and he could not order men to shift about from one district to another unless they wished to. He hoped to get gangs soon. He cqjisidered that it would be necessary to adopt a policy of assisted immigration to induce labor to come out, and not with the idea of reducing wages. They must not forget that the people in power would be asked, to spend money on other classes of land, but there was no reason why they should ! not keep steadily in view the fact that those places, which now hare only tracks,

should have preference in the matter of expenditure. .

Mr. Lowe remarked that this was a fair statement. •

Mr. Stoekwell asked whether the work would he allocated so as to give those who waited the longest the first chance.

Hon. Fraser said this would be done as far as possible, as it was only just.