The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, JULY 17, 1885. THE FORTY-MILE BUSH ROAD

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2044, 17 July 1885, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, JULY 17, 1885. THE FORTY-MILE BUSH ROAD

Tiie reply which the Minister of Public Works gave to the deputation which wiiftu.ti upon him for the purpose of repre.sent-.irig to him the unsatisfactory. state 4 the FortyMile Bush roiid, is quite jof a piece will) the treatment which the district has received for years past, even during the days of provincialism. Then, as now, a handsome revenue was derived tVos it by llie sale of Crown Lands, but tjie amount returned for purposes ot public woijra has always been most insignificant. W« the assurance ot the Government fide settlement in the Forty-Mile Bush is .to ;b,p {ijj.shed ahead as much as possible, Yet tyVJ find that the very itrr.Ri'ies of settlement jare neglected, and that the the ratepayers to put their Imnfs 1,11 s<jir pockets for (lie purpose of Crown Lands, vbicji, in the present state 5 of the roads, can only Ijnd speculative purchasers. To eipeot buyeis jt.o occupy when they have no roads, and no prospect of them, would surely be folly. It might, perhaps, be said that the Government is constructing roads to open the land, .and that we are making these assertions .under a misapprehension, The report from the Crown Lands Department to which we .alluded yesterday, however, tells a tale jwJiich, we think, will be accepted as reliable. Ajb any rate, we may depend upon this, that the officers of the Department are not likely to take credit for too little. Turning to the item ot "Roadsand works to,open land before sale" we find the following under tjjfi heading of Wellington"Principally the further clearing of road lines in theFony-ffliln Bush, preparatory to the recent disposal of 9464 acres, chiefly on deferred payment and perpetual leases, and the exploration and lining out of the beat road lines .to give access to special settlement blocks; also the extension of the Kimb'olton road in the Waitapu Block." And this represents tha whole of the work on account of upwards of

13,000 acres disposed of, hihl mi annual revenue of 15,1)64 on account of deferred payment mictions, Mr Hichaudbon seemed to forget tlmt. almost the entire length of -the Forty-Milo Bush road passes through unsettled country, mid that there are, therefore, no local rates to keep it in repair, If the County isi compelled to maintain the road, it will be out of rates on property that lies from ten to sixty or seventy miles away from it. The answer that the Government would be uuahle to make any extensive grants for road making purposes because Parliament had refused to grant the money which the Government expected, is lame in the extreme, because all the money that Parliament has so far refused was on account of the Customs revenue, no portion of which, Ims ever been devoted to road making by the General Government, It reminds us very forcibly of Mrs Caudle's curtain lecture, when her husiiaiid'had lent a friend a amalUum. of money, with which she calculated she could have done no end of things, Tim plain fact is, that the Comity cannot keep the road in repair unless assistance is given by the Government, and that if that is not forthcoming, settlement must suffer.