WAIPA AND RAGLAN ROAD.

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1096, 3 July 1879, Page 3

WAIPA AND RAGLAN ROAD.

I Sib, — The extract of a letter m the 'Weekly News,' ' from Mr. William Duncan, Chairman Raglan County Counctl, describes the present state of the Raglan and Waipa road, and what I foretold would happen, m a letter to you last November, when the road was about to be commenced. If » this was the state" of the road before half the winter had passed, what will it be by the end of this winter, which we may expect to prove unusually wet and long, judging from the late winter m Europe. Unfortunately, this road is not only m the wrong place, but formed on a wrong principle, that of cutting a scarp on the hillside, where the soil is loose, interspersed with boulders, and m other places soft rotten shale. A child could not travel over the road, without remarking the very numerous scars made on the mountain side by landslips, and, this being the case, as a matter of . course, they, the landslips, will be - more frequent now that large cuttings have been made. I « cannot, however, agree with Mr Duncan, m further taxing " the liberality of Government," to keep m repair this abortive attempt at r_oad making. The expense would annually be enormous, and what would keep the road m proper repair'for a very few years, would form not only a better, but a shorter road m the right place, and on the right principle, the nature of the soil being taken into consideration.

With European labour, a third, or at most half the large sum that has been thrown away upon the present line in' what I fear is merely a futile attempt to bribe the Maories to good behaviour, would haye made the road by Ko Orangi. On that line, which it is scarcely a misapplication of the term, to call " a pass," the road takes the crest of the hills, which are there lower than m any other part of range. When Waikato is sufficiently populous and wealthy to require a sea-side watering place, the beautiful bay of Waingaroa (Raglan) will be that watering place, and the road will be Ko Orangi. — I am, &c, J. C. Johnstone.

Te Haroti, Raglan, June 30, 1879