THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1907. THE BACK-BLOCKS INIQUITY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8865, 28 October 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1907. THE BACK-BLOCKS INIQUITY.

It is refreshing to find a Government organ in the metropolis turning round upon the Government for its criminal neglect of the back-blocks settlers. Here is what the Wellington Evening Post of Saturday last says upon the subject:--" 'The Government desires to do what it can to help the settlers,' was the weak reply of the Premier yesterday to a strong plea for roads for the unfortunate settlers in the back-blockd. 'The Government can only do a certain amount of borrowing a year, and has to cut its cloth accordingly,' said Sir Joseph, in a vague kind of way, like a man speaking in a dream within a dream. The Government seems to fancy that the back-blocks settler is set up as a sort of Bogey Man to scare it into giving cash for roads instead of D"jnedin railway stations, Otira tunnels, lake launches for tourists, chiming jclocks for prosperous villages, well able to pay for their own chronometers. The Government forgets that it is the stage manager of the back-blocks tragedies. The puppets are left to pitifully beat the air, in rags and tatters. The manager says: —'To-morrow and to-morrow and tomorrow I shall give you costumes if I can find the cloth, and I shall pay you if I believe you exist, but I don't believe you are real. You are only phantoms. You can live on the thin air and the thick mud.' What is actually in the Government's mind about the settlement of the backcountry? Providence only knows. The policy seems to be a system of inciting men to go into the wilderness, as a tit-bit goes into the mouth of a lion. . . . The country members should give the Government no peace till it frames a sensible roading policy. . . . Why cannot the Government be a Government?" It seems to be an utterly hopeless task to impress upon the Government that ic has a duty to perform to the settlers whom it has enticed by specious promises to go upon the land far from the reach of main roads or railways, or that it is morally responsible for much needless suffering on the part of the its heroic but too confiding victims. As we have had

frequent occasion to point out, even in this district, which is but-a comparatively short distance from the city, there are hundreds of settlers who are almost absolutely isolated from civilization during the winter months, and suffer terrible deprivation, through inability to move from their holdings for months at a stretch, except at great cost, and even considerable personal risk. Here is a mild example of the condition of things which obtains within twenty miles of Masterton borough. It is contained in the following letter 1 (which took four days to reach us) from a settler in the locality:—"l have noticed lately several allusions to bad roads in different localities in your paper. I enclose a rush which was used to measure the depth of a wheel rut on our road, and this was measured on the solid, the other side of the rut being a good two inches' higher—and this is a district which has been settled for upwards of fifteen years. Anyone coming through from Mangamahoe here will notice in one place a gig which was pulled to pieces on the road, and a little further on a spring trap with the axle broken. The settlers here say the road is worse now than they have ever known it; in fact, it is not safe for light vehicular traffic. I have a pair of good horses, but am afraid to put them in the buggy for fear they would pull the thing to pieces, so we have to ride.. The rush enclosed measures twenty-one inches, and the rut mentioned is only one of many. They are not merely holes in the road, but long ruts. To-day a man came along in a buggy, and the front axle dragged on the top of the mud, the front wheels not revolving at all, and this afternoon a threehorse team got stuck. All three horses fell one after another. It takes a horse all its time to get along without pulling a load. The Iriver borrowed a draught horse to assist in getting out. I would 'ike ;o have some of the M's.H.R. up lere for a while—those who say the jack-blocks road trouble is exaggerated."