PEOPLE’S COLUMN

Northern Advocate, 12 June 1929, Page 3

PEOPLE’S COLUMN

[Our columns are open to the publu For the discussion of matters’ of publia ■•om-erii. We invite correspondence, but do not identify ourselves with the views expressed by our correspondents. Letters must be written in ink and on one side of the paper only. Tho real name and address of the writer must be attached to a letter, not necessarily for publication, but as a mark uf good faith. — Ed.{

COUNTY ROADS.

To the Editor

-Sir. —Late in .the autumn the Whangar ei County Council spent quite a tidy sum in grading the clay roads in the Kiripaka. Riding. The rain came along and the motor traffic, keeping pace with it, cut deep ruts and churned tho mud into a quagmire. Now, there is nothing left of .the grader's work but ribbons of water, mud and slush. It is murder having our women folk and school -children, travelling on such roads. Either the council has no constructive ability or is sadly in want of funds. Now, sir, I had a cantor over the roads last county election and I found that I could with ease use up the whole of the council's revenue on the mud roads in the Kiripaka riding alone. For forty years councillors have come and councillors have gone. They

found the settlers’ wives and children

! in the mud, and they left them in the ■' mud. And men still come forward, keen on landing the job, and give quite a. lot of their time to the natio.ii without any remuneration whatsoever. Surely, if there is money’ in the country to pay a decent salary to .members of the General Government, there should also be sufficient funds available to pay local government members for their services. They, are, or should be, a ■greater asset to the Dominion. I also found that settlers on metalled main roads and highways are altogether out of sympathy with the man in the mud. They iseem totally ignorant of the fact that there is such a thing as a Main Roads Fund and that the mud settlers have always contributed to it, and arc now paying into a Highways Fund as well. Rut, sir, the Whangarei County Council is not alone in its helplessness to cope with the traffic in this, the motor age. A case in point arose in the Rodney County during the late elections. In the Aria riding no ratepayer would come forward for the position of councillor on account of the bad state of the road over which it was necessary to travel. We .have tor ! many bodies at present trying, or making a gesture at, road-building, and all failing dismally. My remedy is to, say as a basis to work on, merge the six northern counties and form a road board to take the place of the county councils. Each county merged would have a representative on the board, who would be elected in the usual way. The board would have absolute control over all roads and bridges. The Highways Board would automatically go out, and the P.W.D .staff, well, there would be big contra ets offering for some; the rest would be absorbed in railway works and the Upper House. To finance the sc heme, the present county road rate should remain as it is for a period of three years, and be wiped out altogether at the end of another four years at the rate of 25 per cent, per annum. Added to the county rate would be the petrol tax, etc. plus yearly Government grants in round sums. This money should he used, not as capital, but to pay interest and sinking fund on capital raised. Here the General Government would stop in -and issue, say, five millions worth of (U per cent, debentures, redeemable at stated periods. These would be eagerly snapped up within New Zealand. The banks arc full of idle money. Big metalling contracts could be let straight away. Tho beginning of the end of the unemployed question would be in sight. I am, etc. J. W. BINES.

THE DOMESTIC PROBLEM.

To the Editor, Sir. —Referring to the paragraph in a recent “Advocate’’ -concerning the 17 responses to ait advt, for a domestic, I -should be interested to hear Mr Editor, whether the applicant who received the position within an hour of the issue of the paper is still the -apple of the eye of her mistress. I, myself, was -most -gratified at -the number applicants who interviewed me after inserting an advt. for a help in your paper, ami engaged a nice looking girl, who

baCk-e-d up her application with satisfactory references from the Homeland. However, on being offered increased wages elsewhere, this damsel, during my temporary absence, emulated the Arabs of old by packing up her belongings -on the sixth day of service and

“stole silently away.’’ There was no “by your leave” or other notification, and unfortunately more than the stipulated wages had previously been handed over. Need you wonder, sir, that in future no one of the same class need apply, and although my husband assures me that fate will be even with the defaulter, this is but small satisfaction. Yours, etc. DISGUSTED.