BRIDGING THE WAINGONGORO.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 79, 12 January 1881, Page 2

BRIDGING THE WAINGONGORO.

Pour weeks Luive now elapsed since Mr. C. E. Gibson received the following telegram from the Hon. Major Atkinson :—: — " It has been decided to erecb the bridge across the Waingongoro) on the Nor-manby-Manaia road. Kindly inform those interested.— H. A. Atkinson." As there is no apparent sign of the work being commenced, and as the summer is now far advanced, the public of this district are anxious to know when the tenders are going to be called for. We are informed, on what we believe to be reliable authority, that if the bridge was built, posts and rails, that now cost between £4. and £5 per hundred, could be carted on to the settlers' holdings on the Waimate Plains for £3. These men have paid good prices for their laud ; some are already entering into the work of colonisation with right good will ; and it is unfair that they should be so heavily handicapped. Those who have put their shoulders to the wheel must not allow the matter to rest until the work is taken in hand. We do not believe in badgering the Government, knowing as we do the difficulties it has to contend with ; but during the coming winter, there is sure to be a great demand for posts and rails, and a heavy timber traffic between the bush near Normanby and the Plains. Under the circumstances, it is evident that any unnecessary delay in the erection of the bridge will involve a heavy additional tax on the new settlers. It will involve also an unnecessary and wasteful expenditure in horseflesh and bullock teams, which would, if the bridge were made, be kept better employed in more profitable work, than dragging timber fourteen miles to a place only fiv; miles distant, as is often done at present.