The Star.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 8145, 17 December 1904, Page 2

The Star.

Delivered every evening by 6 o'clock in Hawera, Mtoaia, Nonnanby, Okaitwa. Eltbam, Manga* toki, Kaponga, Awatnna, Oponake, Otakeno. Manntabi Alton, Horleyrflle, Patea. and WaTerley.

SATURDAY. DECEMBER 17, 1904.

THE MINISTERIAL VISIT.

The visit of the Hon. Hall-Jones to Taranaki, or rather that part of it which oi«. the present occasion (as well as on most occasions, by the way) he could fin 3 time to visit was productive of the usual deputations. We had nearly said the usual crop of deputations. But that perhaps would have been an unfortunate metaphor. It was rather a time of sowings, and sometimes the seeds were mainly those of inter-town jealousy and political rivalry. The crop has yet to come, and we hope it will be satisfactory. Inland of Stratford the cry was for "roads, roads, roads," and the Minister was, we are bound to say, most sympathetic in his replies. But we fancy we have heard it all before. He seemed to speak as if he were the first Minister to go in there, or as if he himself was new to the business. Copying one of the Premier's phrases, he remarked at one place that his visit would not be detrimental to the district. Why should it be? But of course the implication was that his visit would prove vertbeneficial Well, we shall see. For the past ten or twelve years such deputations have been of at least annual occurrence and the roading is about as bad now as ever. The truth is, we suspect, that inland the Government, to use a vulgar phrase, have been "biting off more than they can chew." They have been encouraging, almost forcing, settlement in the back, and making land settlement returns read well on paper, but it is one thing to lease or sell land, and another to road it, and so the unfortunate settler* who have gone away back have found that they cannot get roads. With al> the cheap money and all the enormous expenditure of borrowed millions and "surplus" transfers, the sfttlers have in the past been unable to get road-making done, and how they are to get it now, when the Treasurer declares that money is short, is a question that must cause them heart searching. However, the Minister said he intended to go into the question of improving the roads, and settlers will accept his assurances, and see if performances in^the future are better than they have been in the past. At Eltham the deputations appear to have had a rather good time in "getting at" Hawera. That perhaps was not very practically profitable work, but it was not bad electioneering tactics on the part of rival Parliamentary candidates, who with an eye to future possibilities are ever assuring Eltham voters that "Codtin is the friend, not Short. 1 * It is realty rather poor and petty. We hare net said a. word in these columns •bout diverting the Opunake railway line in the sense in which the word was used at Eltham, for we regard the whole question as premature, but the demand for a diversion has come from Eltham and other places which the line originally laid out would not rait;, and if there is to be any diversion then the whole question will have to be considered. As to the Botpkare lake road again there has been no wire-pulling from Hawera. Proposals which have "been made are not exclusively in the interest* <rf Hawera. hut in those jof the whole district. If there had been a request for a road direct from Hawera 'which would not have served Eltham or Any other part of the district as well then tJwre nfignt have "been some excuse for :w«QMeiuw tatkftd by members «f the