CORRESPONDENCE

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 9, 8 December 1883, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE

MR MAC ARTHUR IN REPLY. [to. the editor op the standard.] Sib, — My atteutiou has been called to a letter signed " Unfortunate Ratepayer" appearing m your issue of tho 4tli inst. to which I proposo to reply, if you will afford me space m your j columns. The writer appears to consider that I am at fault as Chairman of the Oroua County Council and Mancheater Road Board for not having 6eeu that the five miles of road between Ashurst and the Harbour Board Block were metalled and made fit for traffic As a reason for this delinquency he sfc tes that I being Agent of the E^ and C. Aid Corpoiatiou. have no interest, bui rather the reverse m completing this road. ow, Sir, what are the facts ? ■Vho cleared and formed the road that leads from A^hurt to tho Endowment Block, the road that enables my critic to get to his land at all ? The E. and C. Aid Corporation, at- a cost of some CI3OO. Who again has agreed to contribute one half of-the one fourth which must be provided by the local bodies m order to obtain the other three-fourths from the Government under the Roads and Bridges Construction Act, to com plete the metalling of this very road. The E. and C. Aid Corporation. Again, it was through tho above offer than an application was put m for the money for the metalling" on the 30th June last, and it is no fault ot miue that the Government amended their own act and cut the grants down first to JJSOOO for each County, and agaiu to some £1500 out of the £5000 if it had been obtained. I got £800 allocated to this metalling which would have done some three miles this year— not a bad rate of' progress when compared with oth r parts of the County which have been much longer settled than the Endowment Block.EVonoutoftlie£lsoo which it seems is all we are to get this year for the whole County, £240 will be the proportion of the Pohangiua Road. T think the above lacts show pretty conclusively that m no capacity have I failed to push forward the completion of the Pohangiua Road, and I may further say that it was mainly through my instrumentality that, the application to have it proclaimed a main road wan sent m by the Manawatu County Council. So much for " Unfortunate Ratepayer's " charges against me, Now what claim has " Unfortunate Ratepayer " on the local bodies of the district that he so imperatively demands tliat the five miles of road leading to bis property should be at once metalled. Why, Sir, this is the first year that the settlers m the Endowment Block have had a rate struck on their properties. The whole amount of that rate is £21 Is 2d or counting the County rate £42 2s 4d ; of that .sum Ll6 14s 6d has been paid to the Kiwitea Road Board, with which body I have nothing to do and 6s lOd has been paid this day of the County rate. That is to say all las Chairman of the County or of any other local body with which I am connected, am responsible for to " Unfortunate Ra epayer" m his capacity as a ratepayer is. 6s 103. As the County and Manchester Road Board lind L3O of the £240 allotted for metalling, the Corporation find another £30, 1 don't tliiuk my critic can reasonably complain of the return mado him for his 6s lOd. The fact is as I pointed out long ago, this block wbon settled will be a standing difficnltv to the local bodies for many years. Having heen sold solely for the benefit of the Harbour Board no provision exists by which any of the proceeds of the sale of the land shall return to it m the shape of roads. Settlers who go back aiid get their land cheaper by i-easou of its inaccessibility cannot expsct to be at once put m the same position as regards roads aa tho.«e who have paid a high price for their land chiefly perhaps on account of its having a metalled road frontage. Jn the particular case m question a groat deal has already been done m forming -.md clearing the Poliangina Road, while every effort' has been made for its completion; and it is indeed very disheartening to those who have done most indeed all that has been done for tins road, to find their exertions are so little appreciated as " Unfortunate letter ■would seem to indicate. Local bodies cannot evoke money enough to metal five miles of road out of six and tenpence m rates, and settlers of a year's standing who have got iheir road cleared and formed, and a prospect of a mile or so metalling annually, are very much better off than many of their predecessors m the Manawatu, who have paid rates and struggled through the mud for years. — I am, &c. D. H. Mac arthub.