The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Saturday, December 17, 1887. GOVERNMENT ROADS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 81, 17 December 1887, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Saturday, December 17, 1887. GOVERNMENT ROADS.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou nim'st at be thy country’!, Thy God's, and truth’s.

Ths only subject touched upon in the Public Works Statement which is of direct importance to this district is the question of roads, and the views held on this subject by Mr Mitchelson require more than passing comment. As regards main roads it is contemplated that, where possible, they should be banded over to the local bodies.

The question bears a serious aspect. In one stroke the Government take from us the sinews on which local bodies had to work in keeping open Government roads—the repeal of the Crown and Native Lands Rating Act—and now they propose to saddle them with the maintaining of main roads. Let us confine our remarks to our own district, though there are many others in a like position. It takes every penny of the Council's revenue to maintain their own roads, and this only with the assistance of the Government. It is now almost certain that there is little to expect from the Government in the shape of aid of any sort, so, therefore, the County Council will have to rely solely on their own rates to undertake necessary works. In Cook County there are three Government roads—the Gisborne-Waiapu Inland Road, the Gisborne-Opotiki Road, and the Gisborne-Waimata Road. With regard to the first named it is estimated that to construct the 40 miles necessary it would take £20,000. To construct that part of the Opotiki Road which is in this county it would probably cost something like £1 5.000 As to the last mentioned road X"6ooo would finish the whole length. So it appears that in the East Coast alone over X 40,000 is required to complete the Government .roads. The Minister for Public Works proposes to devote towards the main roads of the whole Colony for the next two years—a sum that might be sufficient for repairs, but certainly not for completing any of the unfinished roads. Small as the amount is we will be thankful if we get a portion of it, but it has hitherto been the rule, not the exception, to ignore the smaller districts for the larger and wealthy ones. “ The important work of rendering Crown lands more accessible to settle-

ment by the clearing and formation of road lines has been, and is being' promoted extensively throughout the colony.” So says Mr Mitchelson, and, one would think he ought to know. If we take our county as an instance how far this policy in the past has been given effect to, we arrive at the satisfactory conclusion that the Governments have spared no efforts to shut up all Crown lands by not making roads of any kind. The ratepayers themselves have been taxed by the local bodies to pay for roads which the Government in all fairness should have undertaken. Major Atkinson has reckoned upon the Crown lands as a source of revenue, Every facility is to be given to every intending settler to get a piece of land for himself, but the very backbone of success must be the existence of roads to allow a man to get on to his land. There can hardly be a doubt that the prosperity of the colony depends upon settlement, and, if the Government are not so short-sighted as to see it, real settlement will never take place until roads are provided to allow purchasers to get to their property. Who is going to settle upon a piece of land in the back country where there are no means to get to it ? This has always been the cry, and no one can wonder at it. Indeed the wonder appears to be howsettlers have been confideut enough to go into the back country and put up with the hardships we. so well know they have to go through. Lrastic retrenchment is imperative, that everybody knows, but when it is to be carried so far as to practically shut up the roads leading through the back country—a source of wealth to the colony if settled upon which cannot be computed—it appears to be carrying the policy a little too far.