Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878] MONDAY, OOTOBER 24, 1892.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4251, 24 October 1892, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878]

MONDAY, OOTOBER 24, 1892.

SECOND EDITION

Being the extended title op me Waikaeapa Daily, with which it is IDENTICAL

The Masterton Road Board bag decided to take the Weraite road, and it is a pity that it did not adopt this course earlier when it found that it was dealing with a hostile Government, which was turning an act of public duty into a personal altercation. The road opens up to Mastedion a splendid block of land, and wo have reason to believe thai the owners of the Weraite, and of the estate beyond it, are favourable to planting the blook with a colony of small farmers. Without the road such a colony could not of oourse possibly be established, If within a short period a small farm settlement in the immediate vicinity of Masterton be founded through the instrumentality of thisroad,and we have good grounds for assuming that bucli will bo the case, what will then be stid of the virulent opposition of Mr A. W. Hogg, M,H,R, to its bein,{ laid off, It will then, wo have no doubt, be 1 generally acknowledged that the member for the distnot tried bis level best to do the town of Masterton a serious injury, Of course every* body knowß the trumpery ground on which this road question has been fought, It has been said that one landholder wasted it and another landholder did not want it, and the battle turned on a personal conflict between the pair. We have deliberately avoided ill oar columns the personal aspect of this question, and wo take our stand entirely upon the interests of the town and road district. We have studied the map, and from it alone the deduction is perfectly evident that a big block ot roadless land, within a stone's throw of Masterton, will be opened up by the proposed Weraite road, When it is further considered that the block is suitable for small farm settlement, and that the owners are favourable to putting it in the market for fuel) settlements, we regard opposition to this road on the part of the Government, which really means the Member for Masterton, as a crime against the town and district. Our columns are open to any expression of opinion as to the merits or the demerits of the Weraite road from the standpoint of the public interests. If we have closed them to scurrilous personalities it is because no respectable journal allows its columns to become a vehicle for personal animus. The question of how far the Weraite road will benefit the town and district, apart from the personal issue which ought never to have been imparted into it, is a very important one and we would gladly assist in promoting an exhaustive disouasionuponit, Tho Government and the member for Masterton have made the question a party on<-, indeed they have, gone further than this, and made it a personal one. The side they have taken must be a weak oneiftbev cannot defend it on some fair publio ground, Possibly finding that they have been worsted as far as argument goes, they fall back on personal abuse us their natural and only available weapon. The public, we feel sure, will base its ultimate "("•diot of this question upon facts, anu not on prejudice,