MEETING OF RATEPAYERS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1866, 16 March 1889, Page 3

MEETING OF RATEPAYERS.

A largely attended and thoroughly representative meeting of ratepayers in tho Orari Bridge district, was held in the Orari Bridge schoolroom on Thursday evening last. Those present represented a very large area of the district, including settlers from both sides of the bridge, Woodbury, Peel Forest, and Geraldine, Mr F. R. Flatman was voted to the chair, and read the advertisement calling the meeting. He said they all knew his views about the bridges. If one was kept in repair the whole of them should be so kept, and if one were allowed to go down tho river then (he whole of them should be allowed to. They should not make chalk of one and cheesa of another. If th 9 bridges in every part of the county were kept up, then the ratepayers in the Orari bridgo district would have to pay their share ot the cost. (Hear heir). It interested the county as a whole that there should be a main line of road kept open throughout the county. This had been obtained and bridges erected, and it would be a great pity if these should be now abolished, The money had been borrowed and spent npon (hem, and they should not now be allowed'to fall into decay. Mr J. Mundell said ho was greatly interested in this question before thd meeting. Ho was in fact interested as much as much as anyone, and the fannera living upon the banks of '.he river were not more interested in the matter than himself. It was a great public question, which interested the whole of this part of New Zealand. There should undoubtedly be a main lino of road kept open throughout tho county and properly bridged if they were to keep pace with the times. (Hear hear). A very large sum of money had been spent upon these bridges, and t© let them go into disrepair when thay got a little shaky was about the worst policy thst any governing body could pursue. It wai like a man building a good house, and if he had a poor season or two letting the house go to ruin for for the want of a little repairing, and going back to live in the old sod nhare of former days. It would be just doing a similar thing to allow these bridges to go to waste. He was sure it only wanted a little pressure upon the govering bodies, and the fact before them that it was the wish of the ratepayers that these bridges should be done, to have the work carried out. It devolved upon their representative on the council to apprise the council of the fact that such an important bridge as the Orari Bridge should not be allowed to go to waste. The bridge was an important one, and opened into an immense tract of country. The Rangitata bridge was now in first-rate repair, and a person travelliug along the road left that bridge and came on and found a bridge over a most daDgeroua river allowed to go to ruin. The country was now in a different position to what it was a few years ago with regard to fording the rivers. Then a parson fording the river could go up or down it until he came to a good ford and there cross. Now the land was taken up on both sides of the river, and fenced in, so that a person wishing to cross must either do so at the ford or else be stopped altogether. This wa3 only one amongst many urgent reasons why the council ehould keep a line of bridges upon a main line of road, (Hear hear). He did not think the council would be bo short lighted as not to carry out the wishes of the ratepayers. If they were, the looner they left their seats and gave place to men who would try and oarry out the wishes of the public the better. It would be suioidal for any public body to allow bildges whioh had been io urgently needed as to have been erected at such great cost to go out of repsir. Mr Mundell moved—" That in the opinion of this meeting it is of the utmost importance that the Orari Bridge ehould be kept in good repair for tiaffio, and that the County Council be reßpeotfully asked to carry out the wishes l of the people in this matter. A copy of the i resolution to be forwarded to ibe council by its next meeting." Mr J. Wharton seconded tb.9 resolution. Mr 0. Hewson said Mr Mundell had stated the feelings of the meeting so well that there was nothing left for others to say. For his part he fully endorsed all Mr Mundell had said as to the imperative necessity there was for the bridge boing kept in repair. Mr L. Grant said he was not greatly interested on the other side of the river, but he considered it would be a great pity if the bridge was allowed to go out of repair. The road" was one of tho main roads between Ohristohuroh and Timaru, aud therefore he thought the bridge should be kept in repair. He had uotioed that at the Winchester meeting one of tho speakers said the Orail bridge was a white elephaDt to the ratepayers. He thought if the speaker in question had lived by the Orari river he would not call the bridge a white elephant. There was a great deal of traffic over the bridge, and he thought the loast the ratepayers could do was to urge upon tho County Council the neocsity of keeping tho bridge open.

The Chairman said he had for the past fi?e years heard of the Orati bridge being rotten. He could tell them, however, that while bii firm were sawing up at Peel Forest they constantly psaied over the bridge with a waggon and six horsss, with three thousand feet of green timber for a load, and if the bridgß would stand that it would stand u good deal. He pointed out the great height of the bridge above the river-bed, and said that before the water ooulrt touoh the bridge the whole of ihe district about would be iuund&ted. There wai no doubt the bridge

oscillated a good deal, but ho believed that was greatly owing to the height at which the structure had been built. He would like to point out that the Count j Council had paid very little towards the ereotion of the bridge. They, aa a body of ratepayer*, h-d paid a good deal for the bridge, aa it came princi pally out of the Boad Board funds. The Eoad Board lengthened it once. It wag only a short time tgo that the Council took it over. Be the white elephant incident, that had, be believed, been contradicted in the room, but somehow the statement had got into print but the contradiction had not. He did not think the speaker who uied the words meant to say that exactly, and did not think of the damage he was doing the bridge when he said bo. He called it damage to the bridge, beoauie all those in the Counoil who were opposed to the Orari bridge being repaired would be only too glad to take hold of such a statement, and say that the bridge was useless; that the statement had been made by a person living in the district, and had not been contradioted. He believed if Mr Dunlop (the speaker referred to) had been there that evening he would have explained he did not mean to give the impression his words conveyed. Mr Mundell said he believed Mr Dunlop had been called to account at the meeting about saying so, and fcho words were contradicted by him, and were to have been so reported, but somehow were not. Howevor, they had nothing to do with any other meeting or bridge. They had a decided claim on ihe Orari bridge, and thoy were going to stick to that claim that the Orari bridge should be kept open. A question was asked as to the amount of traffic crossing the bridge Mr Wharton said that on an average 6000 sheep orossed it weekly and some weeks 10,000 orossed. There was also a very large amount of other traffic

Mr McDonald was living at the approach to the bridge, and he believed fully fifty traps and horsemen crossed the bridgs each day. Mr 0. Hewson believed thia was under the average. Now the river was almost dry, and a person could oroBS it at any of the crossingfl, there was not nearly the traffio there was when the river was a little up. Whon a slight fresh was in the river people had to bring their sheep and everything else to the Orari bridge, and being the only bridge it was used by the settlers from right down at the beaoh to the hills. It was of the utmost importance to the district. Mr Flatman said another reason why the bridge should be kept open was the high rate charged for the carriage of sheep upon the railway. If a person bought eheep the other side of Ohriatohuroh he could bring them down by the road to Q-eraldine for 3d per head if the flock was a deoent-sizad one, whereas to bring them by tho railway would cost lOd per head. If the Orari Bridge was dene away witb, they could not drive a mob through like that, aj now a days they had to keep sheep moving right along. They could not now wait about on the banks of a river till it went down, as they could yoars ago, as now the country was all bought up and fenced, and there was not feed for the Bheep. It wouli handioap the sheep market very seriously if thia bridge waa done away with. Mr Mundell said he hoped it would never happen in his day that tho bridge would bo done away with, unless they were going to retrograde altogether. It was absolutely necessary that there should bo a bridge kept open, and he know of no plaoe on the river where the district would be better served by a bridge than at the present crossing. There had been a member of the County Oounoil at the Winchester meeting, and he simply said the council had no money, and are afraid to move. The oounoil seomed to sit like there a lot of nonentities, but the ratepayers must nob stand that, but simply replace them by better men if they did not attend to their interests in a more business-like way. The chairman thought it would not take muoh to move them. He coniidered if the County Councils were abolished tho Government should take over the muin line of road from one end of the island to another. Tho line of road running through the different road boards districts eaoh board would look after, and then send in its aooount for the work aotually done. The main line of road should be paid for out of consolidated revenue. A complote main line of road was second only to the railway. They had the railway and they Bhould have a oomplete main line of road. It was only right to keep suoh a road open. One ov eraser could look after a hundred miles of road, and n work required doing the boarda could do it, and then send in their account to tho Governmeqt. (Hear, hear). The chairman then put the resolution to the meetiog, which was carried amidst applause, every hand in tho room being held up for it. A vote of thanks ta the chairman terminated a moot unanimous mooting.