CLEVEDON TO PAPAKURA.

Franklin Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 23, 26 February 1936, Page 8 (Supplement)

CLEVEDON TO PAPAKURA.

THE WAIN HIGHWAY. QUESTION OF SEALING. THE RECENT MEETING. The owners of farm properties on the Clevedon-Papakura road and adjacent side roads, are by no means satisfied with the result of a meeting at Glevedon recently when a suggestion bv the chairman of the Manukau County Council, Mr F. M. Waters, to bitumenise the road at an approximate cost of 10s pea* £IOOO rateable value, was not entertained. Our Papakura correspondent states that in conversation with farmers living on this road and near to it, he learned that the proposal would not have been turned down if the council had placed a more definite proposal before the meeting. The feeling of these far-mer-ratepayers is that the council should have taken a decided stand in the matter, and backed the proposal as each year a saving was going to be made in maintenance alone, which although small, would be considerable over a number of years. These ratepayers living on the road say that if the proposal was worth calling a meeting for, the council should have, strongly endorsed it and not Just in a half-hearted way say to those present, “Well, we are not forcing the matter or pushing the scheme, we just hand out the suggestion and leave-it-with-you-gentlemen” sort of style. It reminds one, as one interested party said, of the politician who addressed a meeting and said, “Weil, ladies and gentlemen, these are my views, if you don’t like ’em, I’ll be very pleased to change ’em.” It is the considered opinion of some settlers in the Ardmore and Glevedon districts that in the event of the proposal being again put to the ratepayers in the Wairoa, riding, that the proposal would be carried.

There is no doubt the dust nuisance is a deciding factor, perhaps not so much this summer on account of the wet weather.

The bitumenising of the road affects Papakura businesspeople one would think, as the better the.road, the more likely the traffic would come Papakura’s way. However, Papakura can hardly boast of its portion of the highway, as the road to the Manukau boundary is a mass of pot holes, shoals of loose metal. In fact quite enough to popularise the Takanini-Clevedon road as an alternative route to the Clevedon district from Auckland.