The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1885. THE ROAD BOARD QUESTION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2166, 9 December 1885, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1885. THE ROAD BOARD QUESTION.

The Road Board question is beginning to assume very serious dimensions in the County of Wairarapa East. There are. already five roml districts in the County and there are no leas than three separate agitations,for theconstitutionof new ones in progress, which, if sn«cessfal, would increase the number to eight. Wairarapa West is content with two districts, which are allowed to do nearly the whole of the work, and we hear of no.agitatiou for separation. The inference that the large Boards work more satisfactorily than small ones may not be altogether incorrect, With regard to the movement on the part of thfuWhareama settlers, it may, however, be urged that the Masterton Road Board has got itself into a very nnsatisfactory financial 1 position, and that the settlers in the proposed new district have received very little in return for the rates they have paid for so many years, They are really continuing to experience the treatment to which the whole of' the East Coast districts were subjected by the Provincial Government, which derived an enormous land revenue from .them, and spent the money elsewhere, As yet, we have not been shown any equally serious grievance that has prompted the ratepayers at Ekefcahuna and Mauriceville to agitate for separation, though any one acquainted with the circumstances of these localities will readily admit that the formation of roads is progressing at such a slow rate that tbp settlers must get heart sick. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at that they feel the confidence in themselves that they can do better, and wish to.have opportunity to try, We do not at present wish to discuss the merits of-the three movements :under notice; but we want -to know where the thing js going to stop. How long will it be before and Tiraumea will want to be constituted sepaiate districts, and wha,t assurance is there that any one of the new districts may not want to be again divided at an early .date ] These matters are fast drifting towards jibe old state of things when each man looked after his own.bit of road, and tnißted to Providence or his neighbors individually for the rest. The result

of iho present tendency, if its effects continue much longer to be felt, will be a sudden relapse, which may do away with all the Road Districts at one fell sweep, and that would be a consummation scarcely to be desired in many, parts of the Wairarapa. It is to be hoped that when the three proposals for the constitution of now districts have been dealt with, no new ones of n similar nature will be brought forward for some time to come,