FIVE YEAR PLAN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23115, 13 August 1938, Page 16

FIVE YEAR PLAN

BACK COUNTRY ROADS STATE GRANTS LACKING PROMISES NOT FULFILLED WHANGAREI COUNTY COMPLAINT [by telegraph—owx correspondent] WHANGAREI, Friday "Government road grants for this county are very disappointing," said Mr. J. A. S. MacKay, chairman of the Whangarei County Council, at a meeting of the council to-day. "Out of a total sum of £22,925 applied for by the council only £5857 has been placed on the estimates. "On September 18 of last year the Prime Minister stated that the Government would make all the money required available so that county councils could give access to all settlers. All that was asked of councils was their co-operation. If any back-block settler found himself in the mud with no prospect of getting out, then it was stated that the Government would not be to blame. "Still In the Mud" "Well, 11 months have gone by and the settlers have someone to blame, as they are still in the mud," stated Mr. MacKay. "The Prime Minister has said that we have only to ask for tho money. Although we have applied wo cannot get tho funds for the roads. The council has done its part. It has prepared a list of works under a fiveyear plan, as requested by the Government, but we are not getting very far with these works. "The of Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, has stated that the five-year plan would be completed within three and a-half years and then there would not be a single unmetalled road in the back-blocks," continued Mr. MacKay. "That is what the public is asked to believe, yet we know that on many roads a start has not yet been made. What I want to make quite clear is that the County Council is not responsible for the position. The responsibility lies with the Government. All we ask is that the Government fulfil its promises." Increase in Traffic Mr. A. Clarke moved that all the grants applied for, but not granted on the main estimates, be again forwarded to the Government for inclusion in the supplementary estimates. This was carried. The Minister of Public Works is to bo communicated with, it being pointed out that at tho present rate of progress the back-blocks roads will bo in a worse state at the end than at the commencement of the five-year plan, as traffic is rapidly increasing, while the roads are cleterioratilag. ,,