OMOANA CLOUDBURST.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 March 1922, Page 6

OMOANA CLOUDBURST.

DAMAGE TO ROADS. SETTLERS’ DIFFICULTIES. TO WORK OUT RATES, The difficulties in which the settlers in the Omoantt district have been placed as a result of the recent cloud-burst were placed before the Hawera County Council on Saturday, when a deputation from the district waited on the council asking that something be done to give the settlers road communication with either Eltham or Hawera. Mr. Nairn, of Nairn and Sons, stated the case for the deputation. He said that for 15 years they had been paying rates to the "Hawera County, which had done nothing but threaten them regard.ing the payment of rates. They had been paying about £l2o in rates and £7O in ‘’thirds” per annum between five of them, and had not got a penny in return. The road was absolutely impassable as a result of the cloudburst, and a horse had not been taken over it for two months. Everything that went into the district had to be carried by the settlers. Mt. Nairn said it was simply extortion to demand rates in these circumstances, and the settlers had come to such a position that they absolutely refused to pay any further rates to the county excepting hospital levies. They would work, but would not pay rates, he added. They offered to work out the amount of their rates on the roads. Mr. Nairn did not think that any court of law could force them to pay rates when for 15 years they had received absolutely nothing in return for their payments. As instancing the hardships under which the district labored, Mr. Nairn said that some of the settlers’ wives had been brought out to live in Eltham, as it was unsafe for them to remain in the district with no road communication. As matters were they might as well be paying rates to “China or TimIbuctoo” for all they got from the council.

The council pointed, out that the Omoana district was outside the Hawera County and there would be difficulty in obtaining authority to spend money on the road. As matters stood the district from which the deputation came did not get the benefit of the subsidy granted by the Government to repair the flood damage. The council gave the deputation a sympathetic hearing and finally decided to allow the five settlers concerned to work out the amount of their rates, minus the hospital levy, on the road.