NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY With which is incorporated the NORTHERN MAIL DAILY. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1918 WHEKI VALEY ONCE MORE.

Northern Advocate, 28 September 1918, Page 2

NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY With which is incorporated the NORTHERN MAIL DAILY.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1918 WHEKI VALEY ONCE MORE.

Registered for transmission through the post as a newspaper.

\;f ore nee to the Wheki Valley :.[ heeomes oiicc more a necessity ;!":i; Inlurouts of the public. Travel this route Iras been a persecution . ... ..iv.;Ji j.d a menace to life

/'■j:ib ever since a Government

iive'/or, with an appalling lack of wisdom, first laid it off to provide access to large areas of Crown land

which formed a large portion of the area. A malicious enemy to the community could not have selected a worse line, which runs at swamp level for several miles and for the greater part of the year is itself no better than a quagmire. A quite common essential is imposed upon drivers of vehicles and passengers, to get out, wade through the ooze, and lay tea-tree fascines at the approaches to so-called bridges where a drop of anything measuring up to two feet has to be negotiated. Moreover, the decking of these wooden structures which take the courtesy name of bridges is in some cases so dilapidated that horses and passenger-laden vehicles which Uicy were drawing have only :',ot across safely by a miracle and

because the drivers had the hearts of lions. There is little to be gained, either, by making representations to the county authorities, with requests for rectification. They know well enough what the position is, but have to reply to every appeal with a negative' that has become hoary with age and monotonous by its frequent iteration. For one thing, this refusal is compelled by the fact of the county riding system, by which councillors attend only to their respective riding areas and repudiate the suggestion of county responsibility as a whole for any sectional work. The whole of this Wheki Valley bog-cum-road stretch has to be administered on the paltry sum of £22 per annum, which is all that is received by way of rates, contributed by only two or three properties which the county has the power of assessing. It will be easily understood that such a preposterously inadequate sum is quickly sunk in the slough of despond. - The two riding members are not unnaturally averse to expending more than that amount on .this particular route, as it would be deemed unfair to other parts of the riding which would quickly show \ their resentment if deprived of their I due proportion of expenditure in order to advantage Crown holdings. Thus, between the infinitesimal rating revenue and the exclusive county-riding system, the main route which connects the two most important centres of the North seems likely to continue ■ practically unattended (although the call may often be urgent) until such time as the deviation is formed. When that time may be we do not venture to guess, but-until then some sort of relief should be sought so that the wretched disabilities may. be ameliorated to some degree. It should not be I hard to discover on whom the liability principally rests, since a Government surveyor originated the whole trouble. The North has had to endure the consequences of that folly for many years past, and it appeals to us, as a matter of mere equity, that the expense of the deviation and of keeping the old route in passable repair in the- meantime should be mostly the concern of the State. Inter-communication between the Northern Wairoa and Whangarei districts should by now have been a flourishing fact, and the amount which has been lost to both regions because of this travel blockade must amount to a very considerable sum. Recompense for that deprivation may, therefore, be fairly included in the contention of State responsibility, and the Govern ment could very well be approached on the grounds which have been cited.