GREAT SOUTH ROAD AND TOLL GATES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7772, 19 October 1886, Page 3

GREAT SOUTH ROAD AND TOLL GATES.

TO THE EDITOR Sir,— your issue of Saturday last, the 9th instant, there appeared two letters oil the subject of the Great South. Road, written by Mr. H. S. Andrews and Mr. W. Goodfellow, with reference to which it is neoessary for me to say something. Mr. Andrews, after pointing out the manner in which the member for Franklin North induced the Government to throw over the main roads on certain road districts, proceeds to dwell strongly on the injustice of establishing tolls where payment must necessarily be made by settlers of certain districts, while he alleges those of Mount Koskill, Mount Eden, Epsom, One-tree Hill, and Remuera, escape snoh payment. I think if Mr. Andrews will look more oarefully into the matter, he will find that if the toll cannot be resumed near Newmarket, but must in conformity with law, be placed one mile from the borough, instead of the exemptions as stated in his letter, the whole of Mount Koskill using the main road, a considerable portion of Epsom, probably two-thirds of One-tree Hill, and the whole of Mount Wellington, would all pay. Mount Eden, lying away from these main roads, and maintaining its own road to town, is outside the question. Remuera likewise. If toll can be resumed at Newmarket, the whole will have to pay. If it cannot be resumed there, the districts enumerated are not to be blamed, They were not consuited or considered when steps were being taken for the abolition of the toll. I should like to inform Mr. Andrews that, as regards the One-tree Hill district, with an area of about 3500 acres, there has, by some oversight, been attached no less than 4£ miles of the South Road, that iB, the whole of the road (not half), from the Junction Hotel to near Otahuhu, also in addition its share of the Onehunga Road, amounting in all to between five and six miles of main road. We will presume l that this distriot will be able to spend from two to three hundred pounds each year on this extent of main roads, after maintaining their 12 miles of distriot roads. Will Mr. Andrews and others be satisfied to face these roads next winter with only this amount spent on maintenance meantime, where two or three thousands at least should be immediately expended to put the roads in good substantial condition ? If ! Mr. Andrews expects a good road to be maintained to Auckland, yet objects to pay toll, should he not exercise his keen observation in suggesting some better mode of supplementing rates, rather than declaim so strongly against the only available means apparently open to the Boards ? Your correspondent, Mr; Goodfellow, in the same issue of your paper, makes a series of statements so misleading that they cannot be passed over without comment. Mr. Goodfellow considers it unreasonable to expect the Government to expend money on the Great South Road. Granting that, as a rule, suoh expenditure is not imperative, does Mr. Goodfellow fail to see that the present case is different, and that all we have asked for is, that before transferring the charge of the main roads, they should be put into some sort of decent condition, such ait they were when the General Government took over the roads and tolls from the Provincial Government. No one, I think, wishes the Government to resume charge of these roads, or to have any responsibility regarding future maintenance. Mr. Goodfellow says a toll-bar is to be erected at Greenlane, but I am aware that though several places have been suggested, the initiatory steps are not yet taken towards fixing any place. Mr. Goodfellow further assumes that the whole proceeds of toll will be devoted towards maintaining the road so far as the portage road. How he comes to make such a statement I cannot oonceive, for I know that at the conference of Boards alluded to a suggestion was made that the proceeds of toll should be fairly allotted to the Boards, as far as, and including Papatoetoe and Tamaki West, and that a committee should be appointed to deal with the matter of distribution. The assertion that the districts on the Auokland end of the South Road would escape the toll has been refuted above in reply to Mr. Andrews. It is a pity that Mr. Goodfellow omitted to ascertain facts before making suoh charges. The object, as far as I know, of .calling the conference of Boards on the 25th ult., was to bring pressure to bear on the Government to make the neoessary inquiry regarding the condition in which these main roads were left for the looal bodies to deal with, the condition of which they apparently are even yet unaware, and it was hoped the Road Boards of Manukan would have seconded our efforts for the common rights of all, in whatever manner appeared to them most practicable, and with the commendable motive of obtaining justice, and thus avoiding the necessity of resorting to toll anywhere. Some may have thought it would have been better to have convened a meeting of the Boards of both counties. Some said a public meeting. That, however, is a matter of opinion. Remuera, with ao portion of the South Road, Mount Wellington with but a littie, Mount Roskill with but a little of the Onehunga Road, have, with a liberality worthy of their representatives, taken common ground in a ( spirit of fairness, by openly acknowledging the blunder made by some hap-hazard process Df saddling one small district with suoh a stretch of the South Road, while others asoape, or nearly so. Mr. Goodfellow, howaver, and a few others—not many, 1 hope— with a different spirit, appear to think that there is a fine chance offered of plundering the unfortunate ratepayers of One-tree Hill by compelling them to almost make, and afterwards maintain, an extent of the South ind Onehunga roads, necessitating more < Dutlay this season to make a good and , sufficient road than will probably be spent . >n the portion allotted to Papatoßtoe and , Famaki West during the next twenty years. | I'he maximum of rates (three-farthings in j ;he pound) on present valuation is equiva- j ent in One-tree Hill to varying amounts of , rom five to ten shillings per acre per annum \ >n the grazing lands of the distriot, and as ] ;his would be quite inadequate, even if the ' vhole were spent on the main road, might . lot Mr. Goodfellow soggest a Bill being , ntroduced next session to authorise oonfis- , iation of sufficient land in this distriot, or j ;he whole if needful, to make a good road ( rom Papatoetoe to Auckland? And no j loubt the honourable member for Franklin , S'orth would gladly take charge of the Bill, md skilfully pilot it through the House, as j t would quite co-incide with the liberal and j itatemanlike views expressed by that honour- ] ible gentleman.—l am, &0., . ( Robert Hall. . One-tree Hill, October 11, 1886. j [The above letter has been delayed for c everal days»—Ed.] v . . « C