ROAD BOARD MISMANAGEMENT.

Waikato Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1412, 21 July 1881, Page 3

ROAD BOARD MISMANAGEMENT.

TO THE EDITOK. Sin, — Now that local self-government and local administration of our own affairs are occupying the attention of the Legislature, it may iiot be out of place — in the interest of your readers generally, and the ratepayers of the Rangiaohia Highway District especially — to show the method pursued by that District Board in expending the monies entrusted to it by the ratepayers for the past two years. As most the residents in that district are aware, the district is divided into five portions or sub-districts, each of which appoints a trustee to attend to the requirements of his particular section of the district. ( The plan, until a couple of, years ago, was found to work admirably, much better than had the trustees been elected at random— perhaps' all from one quarter of the district. But for the last two years the village of Te Awamutu has managed to absorb everything into its voracious maw, and its pdeudo " Mayor" — who erstwhile acted as Chairman of the R. H. D. 8., and •who in that capacity managed to extract large sums of money from the late Government, and— by chameleon-like turning 1 his coat — from the present one also — is chiefly responsible ior this state of things. Every penny of the money he so obtained was spent in Te Awamutu alone, and his co-trustees must have been singularly pliant and suppleminded men to have allowed it. However, such is the fact, and thus in Te Awamutu you see wide, well gravelled roads, and gravelled sidewalks, everything in apple-pie order — in other parts of the district, miry roads, impassable sloughs, and bridgeless and culvertless creeks and gullies; witness even the main road leading to the Ohaupo Station for instance. As assertion is not proof, however. I cannot do better than give an approximate statement of the amount of money lavished oh " the town of Te Awamutu " as against all other portions of the district put together — for two years in succession. For the year before the one just ending, the receipts of the Board were, as near as I can remember £1100, of which sum £650 was spent in Te Awamutu. I have not been able to ascertain the exact amount of the gross receipts of the Board for the year just ended, but I think it will be found, including a "special grant " of £300 for the station road in Te Awamutu, to amount to close upon £900, of which amount I know that something like £400 has been spent in " the town of Te Awamutu " alone, making in all a sum of over £1000 spent in Te Awamutu on about one mile of road during two years, while for the same period a smaller sum has had to form and keep in repair the remaining 40 miles of road opened up in the district. Comment on this would be simply wasted. It is clear that unless the, ratepayers of the outside portions of the distcict bestir themselves, the money drawn from them yearly will only go to further enrich and beautify that aspiring "town" in their midst. The apathy and indifference proverbial among countrymen generally, in public matters, must be very strong indeed when their pockets are drawn upon without exciting their lively interest. — I am, &c, Ohaupo. Ohaupo, July 18th.