TARANAKI BACKBLOCKS.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 October 1922, Page 4

TARANAKI BACKBLOCKS.

ACUTE NEEDS OF SETTLERS. ROADS BEFORE RAILWAYS. (By Wire.—Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, Last Night. Mr. R. Masters (Stratford), in the House to-night, urged the claims of the Stratford main trunk railway. He said that if the line could not proceed at present, the Government at least should proceed with the tunnels, which would take a considerable time to complete. He appealed to the Government to give consideration to the reading requirements of the backblocks. He said that the back country in his district was good, and the settlers were good, but the roads were sadly in peed of improvement. He mentioned the cate of a woman who had to get her sick husband across a flooded river. The materials for the bridge across this river had been lying along the road for three years. Some mothers had to leave the backblocks with their children, in order to get their children educated. The needs of these settlers weie acute, and he hoped to see an increased effort made to give these people better communica* lions. Backblocks roads were more important than railways or hydro-electric schemes. The Government was spending money on railways that would never pay. The cost of one of these lines would put a metalled road to every farm in 200 miles of the backblock country.