TARANAKI’S PUBLIC WORKS.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 October 1922, Page 4

TARANAKI’S PUBLIC WORKS.

The Minister for Public Works has been as good as his word in respect to the important Taranaki works. He has placed £15,000 on the Estimates for the Awakino Valley Road, and £14,000 for the metalling of the Mt. Messenger-Mokau Road. During last financial year the expenditure on these works was £6900 and £8684, respectively. If the whole vote is expended this year, therefore, considerable progress will have been made towards giving Taranaki all-the-year-round communication with the north. According to the Minister’s statement on the matter to the Taranaki deputation recently, the department’s object is to finish this work and get it out of hand at the earliest opportunity. The nature of the vote may be regarded as an earnest of the department’s intentions, and the Minister is to be commended for his action. The vote for the Tangarakau Gorge, viz., £750, is not very large, but it affirms the desirability of connecting the railheads by a good road. The vote will not do more than provide metal for the worst parts of the different saddles, such as the Moki and Paparata, but with these done it would be possible to get through to the Ohura, except in or after bad weather. The road is an arterial one, and as such should receive the fullest attention next year. To regrade the difficult parts and metal the road is not, it may be added, a particularly costly undertaking. The Minister has given consideration to the requirements of the Taranaki back- | block settlers, the votes being bigger and I more than usual, showing that he is fully I alive to their necessities, and is desirous I of helping them to the fullest extent. The 'settlers “out back” have been shamefully 'treated in the years gone by, many hav- ! ing only a bridle track after years of pioneering, and others being cut off for months from civilisation. For these men and women, the real backbone of the country, the Government cannot do too much, and it is good to see that in the present Minister for Public Works they have a sympathetic and practical friend.