WAIHEMO COUNTY AMALGAMATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20707, 3 May 1929, Page 10

WAIHEMO COUNTY AMALGAMATION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Allow me to corroborate what Mr A. D. Bell has asserted in his letter regarding. my position on the amalgamation question. My reason for supporting amalgamation when I entered the council three years ago was that the .county might secure an up-to-date grader. Owing to increased motor traffic, the roads at that time were in. a very bad state. Members of the council who were against getting a grader asserted that a grader would cost £ISOO or £IBOO,-7-a figure which was beyond the means of a small county For two years I did my best to get one. Last winter I took a carful of councillors up to Timaru to show them what a grader could, do and obtained quotations of costs,’ showing that Waihemo could pay for a grader of her own without amalgamating with another county; The result is to be seen in the results' of the work of the grader on our county roads and in the letters that have been sent to the County Council by ratepayers congratulating it on having acquired an up-to-date grader and the fine work it is doing on their roads. Seeing I have achieved my object, I am now against amalgamation, and if the question ig revived will vote against it.—l am, etc., James Chapman. “The Grange,” Palmerston, May 1.