BOROUGH AFFAIRS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7942, 25 October 1904, Page 4

BOROUGH AFFAIRS.

It is not pleasant to be continually drawing attention to weakness in Borough \ administration, but we certainly think ratepayers in some of the thickly populated parts of the town have a legitimate grievance against the Council in connection with the footpath which is being i constructed along the Foxton Line towards the Kawau. There are but few residences in that locality as compared with other parts of "the Borough where footpaths are non-existent, but the Council has seen fit to commence an expensive work which, as a matter of fairness, should have been allowed to stand over •until other streets with greater claims had received attention. The resolution to construct this footpath states that the work shall be done by day labour as an experiment, and it was passed at a meeting on September 23 at a late hour after Councillors Haydon, Tolley, and Holben, who were unsuccessful in their efforts to obtain an adjourn-1 ment, had left the room. It is further stated that no money has' been placed on the estimates for the footpath, and if that is the position funds which are badly needed for other purposes will have to be utilised to pay for the former work. The idea of constructing a very expensive footpath for experimental purposes in a part of the Borough where it is not urgently needed is one of the most extraordinary things that has happened of late in this Borough, and it is very evident that the ratepayers are long-suffering otherwise they would have entered a protest before the work was commenced. In any case where works of this description are to be carried out they should be done by contract, which is undoubtedly the least expensive plan, and the day-labour scheme should be left for local bodies which can afford to experiment in this direction. Two or three years ago the Borough Council decided~that the streets between the Square and Terrace End should be provided with asphalted footpaths, but the scheme, which was a very commendable one, was' only partially carried out, and a large portion o^ Church-street, for instance, is in much the same position it was ten years ago. Another proposal which was sanctioned by the Council, recently was the construction of a footpath in Featherstbnstreet from Rangitikei Line to Terracestreet. Those who are in the habit of traversing Featherston-street know that for more than half the distance there are paddocks without a residence upon them, and the construction of a footpath ; there at the present tune s almost as '

unnecessary as the one oh the Foxton Line. It is, no doubt, very nice for a councillor to run round to Jones and Brown and tell them what has been done in their interests at the expense of more, deserving parts of the town, but tactics of that kind cannot continue-for ever, and men who work on these lines will meet their Waterloo, in a, manner they least expect. V ■■/• '.-■■