Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. THURSDAY, JULY 10, 1873. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 284, 10 July 1873, Page 4

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. THURSDAY, JULY 10, 1873. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Nothing can possibly be of greater importance to the entire province than the providing of means of rapid inter-communication, and it is to the grand appreciation of this truth that his Honor the Superintendent, to a very considerable extent, owes his sustained popularity. In 18G7, he promised railways, and he has certainly done his best to keep his pledge. Travelling through the province is, however, very irksome ; to this we can testifyas we have to do a fair share of hoi-seback work ; and although we admit that much is being done towards railway construction, we must say that to a considerable extent it is at the expense of a very reprehensible neglect of the ordinary roads. Between Lawrence and Switzers, and between Lawrence and Tapanui (the roads being identical as far as M'Kay's — a distance of 26 fciiles) the road during the summer months, though very rough, being cut up with deep ruts > is on the whole fair and passable, but as, soon as the wet season sets in, it is so fearfully bad as to be a positive terror and danger to the traveller. There are members of the Government, and many in the Council, who are practically acquainted with the truth of our remarks, and #c call attention to the subject in the hope that the present session will not be allowed to pass without a substantial sum being placed on the estimates, and voted by the Council for the permanent formation — i.e., pitching and metaling of the road from Lawrence to Beaumont, thence to Rae's, thence to Teviot, and also for the proper formation of certain portions of the road to Switzers and Tapanui; and, as regards the latter, the erection of asuitable bridge over that most dangerous and often flooded stream called Swift Creek, about three miles on ; the Tapanui side of M'Kaj^'s Dunrobin Hotel. This Creek has frei qnently delayed the mail and nuraI hers of passengers, both horse and foot, being, when flooded, absolutely unfordable and impossible to swim |on account of its steep banks. The ; absence of good roads in the [ localities indicated, virtually locks I up some of the finest country in the province, and we must express our i astonishment that the people of Tuapeka have not been long since awakened to the fact that the badness of the Tapanui road is the great, in fact, the only cause of the high price of timber. If a good road were made to Tapanui, timber would be at such a price here as to cause the profitable working of large tracts of auriferous country, which at present prices of timber must for ever remain unwrought. The Government propose, and most laudably, immediately to throw open considerable areas of agricultural land for settlement ; and of all those tracts named in his Honor's address to the late Provincial Council, that of 2,500 acres near Tapanui is, perhaps, more necessary and more likely to be productive of immediate and lasting advantage to a considerable number of settlers than any other proposed allocation of land. Near to several existing settlements, each containing an extensive population, (we refer to Tuapeka, Switzers, Tapanui, and Teviot) this piece of country would have several markets for its produce, and being on the line of road would offer great facilities for settlement, particularly as every inch of the country is well-known to the very class of men most likely to occupy it, and most sure to do so successfully. But the road must be made to and through it. This done, and the land really thrown open to the bona fide settler, the present wilderness shall soon be a prosperous vineyard. Mr. Bastings, in his late address to his constituents, spoke of this very land, when he instanced Mr. M'Kay's little farm at Dunrobin Hotel (Switzers and Tapanui road) as having yielded "50 bushels of oats to the acre, and the finest potatoes ever grown in the province." We are anxious about this, because we are sure that the continued prosperity of this and the : surrounding districts hinges upon it, and we want to keep our members up to their work, and to make them "feel that we require of them a sacred fulfilment of sacred promises. If these lands are not unreservedly