The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1886. DISCONTENT AT ALFREDTON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2414, 1 October 1886, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1886. DISCONTENT AT ALFREDTON.

It is nearly twenty years ago since tho township of Altrcdtou was laid off mid named niter the sailor Prince, His Highness the Duke of Edinburgh. A royal appellation is not alone sufficient to ensure tho growth of a .settlement, and the township of Alfredton to-day is about us populous as tho township of Alfredton a score of years ago, The town was, in fact, prematurely formed, and all its development lies still in the future. Rural Alfredton, however, has madasonio sort of headway, and is inhabited by a fair sprinkling of industrious and enterprising settlers. Still, even rural Alfredton is an outlying district, and necessarily shares in many of the disadvantages to which remote settlements are subjected, Its road communication is, for a settlement over twenty years of age, anything but satisfactory, It shares to some extent in the advantage of the tolerably good road lying between Masterton and Eketahuua, and in summer time it can reap some benefit from the bad Bideford road, but in Alfredton proper there is a deficiency of decent thoroughfares, and the spread of settlement has not been followed by a commensurate improvement in roading. We are glad to learn from our own correspondent that Alfredton settlers are discontented, as this is the proper frame of mind for them to be in. It is the discontented people as a rule who get their needs attended to, and Alfredton, if it remains really, earnestly, and doggedly discontented, is pretty certain to mako its wants known and supplied. Alfredton settlers are bitter over the County expenditure, and claim that tiny have not received a quid pro quo for the rates they havo paid. As a rule the intricacies of County and Road Board accounts, owing to the chamelion character of our legislation for local bodies, have been fatal to any attempt to prove that one section of a district, has been benefitted at the expense of another, Pel haps in the present instance it may be possible to make out a debtor and creditor account, as the County rate has not been running long. In former years, when no County rate was levied, Alfredton was torpid, and no indignation meetings in those days were thought of. A County rate has evidently woke up Alfredton! It may be said that in former times a strictly equitable apportionment of the sinewa of war which were available was made. There was a majority of men in the

Council whose fairnesss and impartiality could absolutely l.e depended upon, We trust that the present Comicil.jius not deteriorated in this respect, and that any legitimate claim has only to be brought forward to be admitted. The strong point for Alfredton settlers to work at, we fancy, would be to tabulate their requirements, to schedule the road gaps that are urganily needed and then to give the powers that be no rest till they are satisfied, A programme of this kind will help Alfredton more than a wrangle over past financial grievances, Alfredton may or may not have been robbed iirthe past, but its settlers will do better if they unite now to roll somebody else rather than waste their energies trying lo recover spilt milk, It is a long lane that has no turning, and Alfredton has waited a weary time for good .road communication with the rest, of the Piovincial district. We trust that its turn is now c(jnjjnfl..and that a united elfoit on tl» r ,i'rt of its cottiers will bo made toopen up the district. The present action of its 'settlers Lints in this direction, and once iheyßiegin to help themselves the difficulties of their isolated, position will be /speedily resolved. Tho first step to be/ taken is obviously a prompt recourse to the Loans to Local Bodies Act.