A BACKBLOCK GRIEVANCE.

Mataura Ensign, 27 January 1911, Page 4

A BACKBLOCK GRIEVANCE.

Some years ago the Government cut up the swamp and bush lands known in •Southland as the Seaward Moss. The country is not first class by any means, and it was sold cheap. Roads had not been formed through it before it was sold, and those who purchased the land immediately -asked for- the necessary means of communication. Notwithstanding the low price of the land, the coit of making roads was groat, and the Government have been doling out votes in driblets. The local body cannot be expected to contribute as the rates from the lands arc limited. In some cases the Government money has been expended in cutting ditches and putting down fascines, but when this has been done the vote was expended and the saplings which formed the foundation for the future road had been left without a covering of clay or earth. The work already done is therefore rapidly falling into disrepair, and hundreds of pounds of public money is likely to be wasted for want of proper clay formation. The principal reason for this threatened waste is that the Public Works Department, the headquarters of which, is in Dunedin, apparently cannot devote the proper attention to such remote localities. The work referred to was carried out by the Roads Department before it was abolished, and the Public Works Department does not appear to realise the state of things which exists in these back-block districts. Another way in which public money has been frittered away is to be found in the alternate patches of road formation in the same district. The traveller finds a fairly good piece of road for a few miles and then loses it in the swamp and scrub, to find the continuation a few miles further on. The country referred to having been cut up for settlement by the Government it should be properly roaded, and the settlers should be given means of access with the primitive pack-horse, to say the least. There are parts of this district to which it would be impossible to take supplies in any other way than by swag, and yet the locality is within 15 miles of Invercargill as the crow flies. ' Had the Roads Deaprtment remained in existence, or if there were an officer in charge of public works stationed in Invercargill, in all probability the matters referred to would have been satisfactorily arranged without difficulty; but under present conditions the settlers have a legitimate grievance which they are at all times ready to give expression to to sympathetic listeners.