ROAD MAINTENANCE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 31, 6 February 1908, Page 2

ROAD MAINTENANCE.

[BT TELHGBAFH. — PRESS ASSOCIATION.] NAPIER, sth February. A commission of enquiry was held to-day, before Mr. W. G. Short, solicitor for the Roads Department, as to a question cjf road maintenance. Tho road in ijfiestion is the Eskdale-Pohui-road, at present maintained by tho Hawkes Bay Council. It was argued for that bbdy that as a portion of the road was within the Wairoa County, the valuation of the property in that county to which the road gave access, and on which tho Wairoa County Council received tho rates, being £241,060 as against a valuation of £136,213 of the property in Hawkes Bay County, the Wairoa County Council should bear half the cost of maintenance. After the evidence had been given the commissioner announced that his decision would be forwarded in due course.

The travelling public is no doubt very long-suffering, and the residents and tradespeople of Gisborne must be extremely apathetic and blind to the interest of their port, when such a condition as is described to us by a recent visitor is permitted to exist and continue. The visitor in question says that a very largo number of passengers were carried to that port by the Manuka in her last trip up the coast — the number given him was over 200. An accident occurred to the regular uteam tender, and one of the smaller boats was put on to convey the passsngers and thoir langgnge to the shore. This was done in one trip, the consequence being that passengers were huddled together, standing with merely a low iron railing round tho deck and nothing for tho majority to hold on by in case of a heavy lurch of the vessel. It is easy to conceive the great risk incurred under such circumstances. Of course, the laying up of the regular tender was unavoidable, but there is no possible excuse for the overcrowding and attendant risk, when a second trip would have served the purpose, and reduced the chance of accident. It is understood that the local Customs officer was on board the tender, and it would be interesting to have from him particulars of the number of passengers that particular tender is licensed to carry, and the number actually conveyed on that trip. For Children* Hacking Cough at uiglit, Woodt' Gitat Peppermint Cure, 1b fed. 1 „