MASTERTON TO PONGAROA

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10590, 23 March 1912, Page 3

MASTERTON TO PONGAROA

j PROPOSED MOTOR SKKViCE. I iiKwwtT by si;u-co-M,vi i:!'f!':>•:. i At the moili:hly mooting of the | ilasicrton Chamber of Comjn:.r<:o yesterday afternoon, tho report of the «.üb-eommittce appointed to inquire into ilhe practicability of the proposal 'to establish a motor coach service between -Master km and Pong'aroa was read, and after discussion was adopted on the motion of .Mr A. lieucor.so;:, seconded by Mr A. T. Spain. i'lr C I']. Dauieil, in supporting the ' re'pai-i, that dm County ! Councils, which had control of the roads through-which the proposed service would 'go, :-:fioiikl bo tilled to improve the road-,-;, with a vk-.v to linking ti'ie service ii;::la!lcd. Ho thought that the service would be of gnat importance to the district through which it pa-*'.-. ; d, and also to the town of Master km. w hieh had to a grt.at extent k> tkpend noon the outlying districts for the basinets upkeep oi the town, and the be iter the road:; leading, to Master ton were, the more trade weald converge on the town, i Mr Jla/.iieil ah:.") pe.inted out that the ! Chamber should ' co-operate as much | as .possible with Kketahuna, whose in- 1 terests were identical with those of! Mastertou, as a good read, and motor . service from I'ongnrna to Mastertou, i via Alfred ton, must necessarily benefit Eketahuna. He thought tliat it I Avaa only a matter of time when the Pongaroa to Alfredton road would be ' ibet-ter than the' present road from Pa-' Jiia.tija to Pongaroa. j The following is the report of the sub-committee : • i

The members of the above sub-com-mittee beg to report that during the past month they .took occasion to visit the Pooiigaroxi district, and have | gathered together as much infonna- j tiou as possible about- the proposal' referred to. I (Master-ton to Afrredton, via Wan-! gnelui.— Thif' road, under summer i conditions, 'puts no difficulties in- the way of the scheme. It is, in places, somewhat rough,"a.nd the curves are abrupt. The grades on' the whole are i easy, Tikitapu Hill offering the moist: serious difficulty in this res-peot— j and a strongly built motor vehicle should travel this distance readily. There is a section of the road, however, from six to ten miles, wiliick is without metal, and as this includes, it-lie steep grades of the 'Tikitapu rise, } ■it would probably be difficult to maintain a dai.ly motor service in the winter season. If metal were put down If our or five miles of this road in selected ,p!aoir,, it could probably be negotiated by a motor vehicle in winter , as well as summer. [

AMrediton to Pongaroa.<— The same remark applies. A motor vehicle might be taken orer this road daily with ease, during the summer months. But there are.from ten to fifteen miles unmetalled—which section includes the worst grades— and tin's would make the suggested service impossible in- winter time. If the wholo of this road were metalled, it would not be by. any means a bad one—certainly much superior to the MakuriPoingaroa road. Settlement-. The v.'hole cf the route lies through valuable sheep country, which 'is sub-divided into fair-sized forms. A stretch of'country ibetwcen Waterfalls and Rakaunui —in ny,hieh is also comprised the very worst part of the road—is almost ibare o!f settlement, but the settlement on the remainder, together with the (townships of Alfredton, Rakaunui and Pongaroa, -should provide quite enough businera 'to warrant the existence of a daily service, provided the roads permitted same. There is no doubt that the natural tendency is for the trade of- all these extensive districts to drift towards Masterton, and^ckV tendency would be materially., assisted by the establishment of a coach service cf some kind. Distances.— The whole distance is ibe'bwe-en fifty and sixty miles— probably nearer fifty than sixty. It can ho covered comfortably by a motoribuggy in summer weather in four and a half hours.

The Mails.— A daily service would . probably be well supported by the settlers all along tho route because of the daily mail it would give thorn, and would probably be subsidised by the Postal Department. Some indication of the amount of support that may be expected by the mail contrac-) itfor from the Postal Department is I indicated by the amounts now paid tto- mail services within the district referred to, as" follows:—Eketahun'aAlfredton, daily, £?5 per annum j | Pahiatua-tPongaroa, daily, £375 per aainuim; Mangaimahoe-Ihuraua, biweekly, £2o per annum; Maurice-ville-Ditton, bi-weekly, £32 per anuu'in; Makuri-Hakaunui, bi-weekly, £SO per annum. Summarised.— The result, then, of your Committee's investigations is as follows: Lender present conditions, j that is, summer conditions, the scheme should , prove both profitable and practicable, and it would, we ■think, lie well supported by the settlers in the districts concerned. But the unmetalled portions l of the roads, if not absolutely impassable in winter, would be in such a- condition as to make the service slow: and expensive, and of little advantage to the, 'Pongarou people as compared with tho Malum route. Therefore, as the service cannot be expected to succeed unless it is fast, regular and thoroughly dependable, the present unmetalled portions of the road to which ■we have referred must he brought into a more satisfactory condition. We would recommend that the Chamber direct tho attention of the County Councils concerned to the advisability of having these sections of the Alfred-ton-Pbngaroa roads metalled, particularly in view of the fact that D .Y doing so Pongaroa would be provided with a more suitable outlet and a direct connection with the principal town of the district.

•Of course, your committee lias not , lost sight of the fact that the completion of the Masterton-Pongavoa railway would do away witli the present necessity of providing the Pongaroa district with a more suitable outlet by road. In conclusion, we have to' thank Mr J. B. Moodie, manager of Messrs Dalgety and Co., Ltd., for arranging ■with the Trntneational Harvester Company to demonstrate, by inea.ri.« of the Wo motor buggies in which we travelled, that the motor vehicles constructed by that Company are imachines capable of achieving excellent results in the class of country that lies between Mastorton and Pongaroa.