PROPOSED EXPENDITURE ON ROADS IN THE TUAPEKA, MOUNT BENGER AND OTHER DISTRICTS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 119, 19 May 1870, Page 4

PROPOSED EXPENDITURE ON ROADS IN THE TUAPEKA, MOUNT BENGER AND OTHER DISTRICTS.

The following proposed items of expenditure on roads in the goldfields we take from a Provincial Council paper-

And for this annual revenue, which is attended by a goldfield expenditure of somewhere about £10,000, we ha"ye a paltry return of in works of absolute necessity, it is moa.t pitiable in •scanning the estimates to observe the poverty stricken manner in which £50 is doted out her^'and £70 there, and a sum of £5000 appropriated for a work which will requireiLdouble the amount to complete. But taking these small sums as they are, it will be interesting to watch the manner in which they are expended. We venture to predict that not much more than half the amount appropriated will be expended. Such was the case last year, when the sum of £90,000 was appropriated for roads, and £53,000 expended. The sum applied to bridges, £32,000 was appropriated, and £14,000 expended, and so on with other things. Why should the hopes of any district be' buoyed up with false estimates 1 Would it not be oetter to set down the amount which will really be expended, and then let the Government carry out their esti : mates ? This they do not do, and in all likelihood the most of the items appropriated, according to the estimates for the goldfields, will require several requisitions from the residents before the Government will expend the amounts. We have that Round Hill a standing reproach to. the present Government. A' sum of £10,000 was appropriated last year for it^ and only £6000 was expended. Had that £6000 been laid out in such a manner tbat the road could have been made available, well and good — it would always hajve been so much of the Round Hill difficulty overcome — but by some consummate bungling the last contract finished at a precipitous hill, thereby making three or four miles of- good new road of no earthly use whatever. In that state it has been left all the summer, and the money sunk in it, sunk to no purpose,

We are glad to notice from Departmental Report, Roads and Works, ]^o. IV., Mr. Barr says: "It is of the greatest importance that the portion on the west of Round Hill, between Gardner's and Havelock, be constructed, that the present heavy ascent may be avoided." The District Engineer, Mr. Smaill's report is quite corroborative of Mr Barr's. He says, i^That portion between Gardner's and Hayelock requires to be completed, in order to save the heavy and dangerous haulage over the Round Hill ; part of it has" already been constructed, but it is of no use until the portion "now recommended be gone on with." Let us hope the Government may see it in the same light as thenengineers of roads and and at once hajve the road referred to formed so that it may be ready for metalling as soon as the wet season has passed. The item £9QO for the road between Tuapeka and the Teviot is a mere farce. £900 for 40 miles of one of the main trunk roads of. the province, not five miles of which is metalled, is indeed a drop in the bucket. Why, that sum will hardly pay the surface men's wages during the year filling up the snts, and diverting the rain j water froafn the road, far less affect any permanent improvement on the road. We are, however, convinced that nothing further will be done to this important road until the settlers inJts neighbour- . hood embody their long in a strong requisition to the Govern-, ment.

Total - --- £10,780 Altogether the paltry sum of £17,000 is appropriated for roads and bridges on ill the goldfields out of the proposed expenditure of £99,000. After such gross injustice as tliis misippropriation of their revenue, we think it is time the goldfields inhabitants eniered their protest against such a onesided policy as that proposed by the jrovernment. What is the revenue of the goldfields ? I it the least it must be as follows :—: — I Rents of Agricultural Leases and Goldfields Kevenue (according to the Treasurer's own showing - £19,500 3old Export Duty - - - 21,000 Pastoral Rents, say - - - 30,000, , i Total - - - £70,500

:indly furnished us by Mr. Brown :—: — Tokomairiro to Tuapeka - - £5000 "Tuapeka to Teviot - - - - 900 Rock an# Pillar to Dunstan - 300 Dunstan to Cromwell - - - 1000 Cromwell to Queenstown - - 1400 Teviot to Alexandra - - - 1500 Lawrence to Wetherstons - - 100 Tuapeka to Switzers - - - - 300 Waipahi to Tapanui- - - - 70 Tapanui to Moa Flat - - - 100 Tapanui to Waikaka - - - 60 Round Hill to Waitahuna township ------ 50