The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1911.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 40, 1 September 1911, Page 2

The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1911.

ONE of the most serious indictments by the Opposition side against the present Government is the charge that it not only fails to keep its promises, but when money is voted for a specific purpose, owing to some reason or other, it fails to reach that end. This would be bad enough under ordinary circumstances, but when the purpose the money is voted for is our back-block roads the wrong is intensified a thousandfold. Our settlers have two clamant, overpowering needs which any Government worthy of the name should attend to. One is the settlement of the lands that are lying idle, and the other is the making of our back-block roads. When Sir Joseph Ward was travelling in the King Country three years ago he had such an experience of the roads, or want of them, that he promised a quarter of a million of money to be spent annually for four years upon these roads. According to Mr James Allen, if that promise is to be fulfilled there will have to be an expenditure of £604,000 during this year, which completes the four-year period, or, in other words, although the time has nearly gone by, considerably more than half the money re- ' indeed a crying shame. The men who have taken up sections away back on the strength of good roads being promised by the Government have a serious grievance, for, as we well know, roads mean life and all that is worth living to these men and women. But not only is the honour of the Government at stake. It is the duty of every man who cares a rap for his country and his neighbour's welfare to help the pioneers in the back blocks to get their roads, and those who refuse to help these men are poltroons and cowards. The interests of the whole country demand fair, considerate treatment for all settlers, but especially for those who have taken up sections away back, and have no roads, no schools, no conveniences at all, and our duty is to see that the Government keeps its promises and treats these people with the consideration they deserve.