WAIKATO AND THAMES ROAD.

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 404, 15 December 1874, Page 2

WAIKATO AND THAMES ROAD.

Wt. do not know whether any of our local bodies or of our citiz»ns intend to deputationrae Sir Donald McLean on bis visit here, but there are a few matters to which we think hit attention might adtanta^eously be called. As our reader* are aware, the Ministry have set I heir faces against undertaking a railway to connect the Waiknto country with the .Thames Valley. No one can deny that such a line would be one of the mmt advantageous in the country, and ia reall) the best connection between North and South, and between the wide interior aid the coa«t. It has every element in ,m favour, except one, and the want of that i/fatal. It is not a " nolitical ritilnay," it cannot sway a number of votes in theJElouseof Rrprpirnta lives, not even the. vote of the member for the Thames. Even the Auckland people are apathetic, or indeed hostile, for such a line would undoubtedly divert a. large amount of the trnffic of the interior from Auckland. Thui we are abandoned. We suffer, nnd in a degree the whole colony suffer* with vi for the neuleot in opening up one of the largeit and best district* in the North Island. It is not at all likely that Sir Donald McLean will give any consent nt present with n-spect to a railway, but he might do •omethinß in regard to a roud. There is a Inrge »urn at the nonimand of Ministers for the construction ol roads in the North fslimd, and perhaps now the Native Minister will have arrived at the conclusion that the time has ■ ome when a road mig>>f be made to connect t!ie Thames with the Waikato. We cannot conceive how it it thut this district is bo entirely neglected. Roads were commeneejl between C imbrirlgp and Tnupo.and alter having been mndo for some distance the work was stopped by the natives. It wa§ >o also with the road between Cainbndge and TtuiriingH. In tliese cases the Government attempted— not very hard, it it t n ,P — 101 0 carry out u road in spite of native opposition, but here, where the road is more important than either of those above referred to, and where opposition from the natives need scarcely be anticipated, Government have never made «. beginning. Here is a subject therefore on which fiir DoiiHld might be very fitly '• interviewed," when he couM hardly avoid expressing himself in plainer terms thun in, all l>rohhbihty lie will use wlien speaking to tlio rmtivos. Then he will deal in cloudy and metaphorical language, which it will puzzle us to understand, but we might succeed in getline something more definite from him as to the intention* ol the G ivprnment by tackling him on the subjvot of the road to Waik&to. In tlie event of a European )>O|>ulation being settled at Ohinemuri, tlie-e would inevitably be frequent intorrourse w! h Waikalo and the interior.. Tlutopen mil' we confidently expect coon, and it would be as well to be so far prepiiivd a* to haie the road commenced at once. Ntttives might be employed to keep them out of mischief. II Sir Donald is really anxious to open the country he cannot fail to spp how greatly the construction of line* of communic.ition to W-tikato and Tauranga would contribute to this end. — Advertiser.