NORTH ISLAND ROADS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14281, 1 August 1908, Page 10

NORTH ISLAND ROADS.

A DOLEFUL 'PICTURE. (FEOM O(JP t flwir COEEESPOMJENT.) . AUCKLAND, July 31, Hie settlers in the •north-of Auckland are .haymg roß gij ■ t [ mes at prcsen t ij^ ew ■was once, a man who remembered 6ceing the north of Auckland when th,ero wa3' no mud on it, but he's dead. In fact a very large area of the country is impa.-ss-able unless (o an airship,, and tho baofc Wocte settlers don't possess many of ihos-i. A fair example ia the country between Hiikerenui, tlio present terminus of the Whangaru to Kawakawa railway, and Towai, a distance of seven miles. Only, in caws of extreme necessity »So the settlers attempt to traverse wh.it ley scribe M a veritable sea of mud and wien they do they run tho risk of 'being bojrged for hours together, ov at any rate until resistance arrives to cither piill or dig them out. While the settlers thus avoid the Toad with almost religious observance, Mr A. Christie, the unfortunate mail, contractor, has to faco the task of getting through several times a week. Or Saturday, tho 17th inst., it took him fivo houTS with 14 hor«s and throe traps 10 «oyor tho seven miloj, ivhilo last Saturday ho spent six hours in covering nVe m jj M| nnd. was then obheed to telegraph that the road was " simply impassable." Tho Postal Department in consequence is now making .arrangements to rend the mails tor the district via Russol, Opua, and Eawakawa.,