LEES VALLEY BRIDGES.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19970, 3 July 1930, Page 11

LEES VALLEY BRIDGES.

70 rHE EDITOB 07 THB FBXSS. Sir,"-Mr Sharpe finally broke the silence of the Oxford County CotnteU in the matted of the Lees Valley bridges. He says there are "important facts I have overlooked or forgotten." Two points I have not forgotten are: (1) These settlers, in company with the other men who fought, vent away and helped keep the people of Oxford safe and snog' in their tomes; and (2) the people of Oxford were the chief cause of the road being put where it is. _Mr Sharpe, in company with Mr Wilkinson, evades the two salient points in my letter—that the Councils derived revenue as rates for se many years from the settlers without giving anything in return, and that the rates from the other runholders must be included. These accumulated rates would bo ample to provide the Council's quota for these bridges, something lika £I4BO between the two counties. Mr Sharpe says: 'ls it not reasonable t<> suggest that these settlers provide these bridges themselves?" This they have already done. He says, also, that only tht settlers .would use these bridges. This is quits incorrect, as large numbers of people travel into the valley. on business or pleasure.—Yours, etc., ADVANCE Oxford, June 30th, 1930. TO THE BDITOB Or THS *BBj3 Sir,—-"Advance" is to be commended for his letter on Lees Valley bridges. Surely the settlers who are. rated on ; bridges both in Oxford and Ashley Councils should not be expected to pay a separate rating on the proposed Whistler and Ashley rivers. That the bridges are essential and an everyday necessity is every day apparent, with the young community growing up Owing to swollen rivers, dangerous and difficult fordings, and the fear of fatality in an open dray, a baby was very ill for three weeks last winter before medical assistance could be procured; yet we are only 30 miles from Oxford and 70 miles from Christchurch. If the Councils interested could look at it from the settlers' outlook, as a necessity and not a luxury, the rivers would be speedily bridged.—Yours, etc., BACKBLOCKS SETTLES. Lees Valley, July Ist, 1930.