BACKBLOCKS’ HARDSHIPS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 16 May 1925, Page 3

BACKBLOCKS’ HARDSHIPS.

MAKING THEM FEWER

GOOD ROADS THE SOLUTION

Something of the hardships which the backblocks settler has to face was told by the chairman of the Whangamomona County Council, Mr X. R. Clelantl, at yesterday’s meeting of the Taranaki Highways Council, when lie thanked members for the sympathetic attitude they had. adopted in deciding to make a special recommendation in the direction of granting over £2ooo' of highways money for reconstruction work on the main road through Whangamomona. Mr C.leland said slips were continually coming down on the present road, cutting the settlers off from civilisation, and he thought that good roads would he the salvation of his district. Many settlers had become downhearted and had given up their holdings, and he thought it would be an incentive to others to stay if they knew that they had a good road into their holdings. Last year had been an exceptionally bad year for slips, and £2OOO of the Highway Council’s £4OOO of annual revenue had been spent in clearing the debris off the roads, and then they were not all clear vet.

for a time the main road had not been passable for a horse and dray, not to mention a motor car, and he knew one woman who had had to ride 16 miles on, horseback to the station in the pouring rain, with a little baby on the saddle in front of her. “Some of these hardships can be overcome bv good roads.” said Mr Cleland,