CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4522, 13 September 1893, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

[To the Editor,]

Ik State ofthe Roads.

:Sib,—Who is responsible for the state Of the public roads up this way ? I am prone to ask this question for I ( can hardly believe that any public body could bo so dereliot in its duty as to suffer the present elate of things to exist. If the County Council, th«n its lnemhejs have a great responsibility placed them in the UD> enSßie position which thoy now occupy. Surely some regard should be paid to the equitable and judicious

expenditure of the ratepayer* money. There is a road between here and ') Eketahuna and it is simply a disgrace ! to the powers that ho. My experience of roads cannot be said to he limited, I csltoall to roMthoseotmany; oountflnn at least three-quarters of the globe, aod 1 do not remember seeing in any civilized community anything to compare to this, There am portions of it simply horrible—unfit for man or beast to travel over. Tim "stioking up"—louse a coloqnial oipression-of horses and dvajs, employed in carryiog stores to the settlers, is of almost daily occurrence, Equestrians aud pedestrians, too, are not nnfrtquently beset by many difficulties and hair-breath tsiapcs from oertnin destruction. Only a day or two ago a horse and trap with it* oconpants, in rounding v>hat is called Harding's Hill, were near being sent to etoraity; and on Friday evening of last week, a man and his horse were precipitated over a precipice into a deep ravine beneath —'tendering their escape from instant death almost miraculous. Fortunately neither whs hurt, and sometime next morning succeeded in reaching Una jirm, after spending a dreary, and I should think uncomfortable night, in thvsplitude of the inhospitable bush, wiro'nly. perhaps, a sioue for a pillow, the sky for a canopy, and the purling stream meandering beside him. Imagine, however, the consequence if the thing—here but imperfectly depicted- should happen on I » audi a night as the one following 1 (Saturday) under a terrific downpour \ of rain. In all probability both] horse and rider would have been lost. But this is only oneof the many caiualtieslo which persons- especially I strangers—are at any time liable during the present condition of the road. It is to be hoped then that the members of the Council will arouse themselves to a sense of their duty towards the settlers, who, I understand, sometime ago raised amongst themselves something like four hundred pounds (MOO) to put the road in a thoroughly satisfactory condition; see that the money is judiciously expended before the Bummer mootliß, now approaching, ace over, and thus prevent the recurrence of such casualties, not to say inconvenience, in the future, lam,etc, YIATOIt, Mangaone, 12th Sept, 1893.