THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, NOV. 15, 1911. ROADS AND SETTLEMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10478, 15 November 1911, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, NOV. 15, 1911. ROADS AND SETTLEMENT.

Mr A. W. Hogg {put his finger upon as weak spot ini the administration of the iGfovernmient when he referred, in the course of hfe speech in Mastertoai on (Monday might, to the hardships which (aa'e (being endured hy struggling isettlers in the IbackMockls of the Dominion. During the short pen'pd that he <wtas Minister of Roads aaul bridges, iMir Hogg made himself personally acquainted with the disabfllities of pioneer settlers, and iuis heart doubtless went out to those wfhjo were spending tlieiit* lives in the isolation of the barren wilderness, without roads, without schools, without access to the markets. Had (he remained mh the Ministry, Mr Hogg would have been an expensive man ; hn.t he would have earned the gratitude of hiuudlreds of struggling settlers by giving them roads to their homesteads. As things happened, the Piriimie Minister bccam € . alarmed at u shrinkage in market values, and, in a [moment of desperation, introduced one of tho most cruel (policies of retrenchment that have evea' been conceived, and shut dowm ruthlcssdy upon thie scheme of backblooks development which " Mr Hogg had so luumianely ventured upon. What bias happened since is a matter of history. Parliament has endeavoured to placate tlie olector-

ates by placing large isums- of money upon the leiS'taanates for roads, and. bridges; ihut the Mfluisbry, exercising that autocratic jw>wer which it has laairoga-ted, to itself in defiance of tdie will of Parliament and the people, has neglected to expend t(he money is- wihicui Ihiave -bean voted. This subjoct was J-elferred t*o by Mv MatSr sey in the speech 'which he delivened recently at EiLtham, a-nd niauiy persons wild, doubtless, agree with wlhat he then said; namely, that money voted ifbr works in /fahe h&ckblookis. should be spent during the year it is voted; this mi'glht not be practicaibde in every instance, hut the prihcJ,ple is an esseoutialLly sound one.. Unfortunately tfor (baokbiock settlers-, aaid for tlie public riateaiest as affected Iby their welfare, tit has been tittle heeded iby the Government. In Jus Financial Statement for 1908, Siir JWsepJb Ward proposed 'that £GSO,000 should ibe, provided, for roads and bridges, aaid £250,000 for (roads dh the backblocks-. As a, matter of fact, tfior (that year and the two succeeding year® Parliament voted for mad© and bridges m the baokblocks throughout the Dominion, £250,000, £210,200 and £230,720; but the Government expended only of each of thosie votes £183,958, £127,977, and £83,458;' or at total expenditure of £395,393, lout of votes aanountiing, ku the aggregate, to £690,920. Why this difference ? The anomaly of the position is not lessened by the fact that the Government itself asked for< tflie amounts .voted 'by ; Pajdaa-menitj and the proof that they were- needed consists in circumstance that more than double the money spent by /the Government could have been advamta@eo.usJy expended in connection Troth the hacklbftoclos, to the benefit of the settlers and the country.