The Opunake Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1894. STAND AND DELIVER!

Opunake Times, Volume I, Issue 46, 7 December 1894, Page 2

The Opunake Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1894. STAND AND DELIVER!

In another column we publish a letter from Mr McGloin, our representative in the Taranaki County Council, drawing attention to the resolution of the Council to place a toll on the Taungatara bridge, on the Main South Road, for the purpose of replacing it. The Taungatara River is the boundary line between the Taranaki and the Hawera Counties and the bridge for some time past has been in a dangerous state. Recognising this, the Hawera Council, not wishing to be let in for a probable bill for damages, concluded that steps should be taken to rebuild it, and accordingly communicated with the Taranaki Council to that effect. Now that the latter body has to face the difficulty they have decided to endeavour to get a toll on the bridge to cover the cost of their share of rebuilding. This action is a most deliberate breach of faith with the settlers eastward of Opunake.. The area between the Waiau and Taungatara Rivers running from the sea to the Forest Reserve has been formed into a special rating area, and a loan for £2OOO has been carried for metalling and bridging the Eltham Road and metalling the Main South Road as far as these roads run through the area. At the meeting held to consider the loan at the Eltbam Road School, when the County Chairmnn presided, the ratepayers were assured that in the event of their carrying the loan, there would be no tollgate erected. The supposition then certainly was that the tollgate, failing the loan, would have been placed on the Waiau, but the ratepayers, in polling for the loan, were certainly under the impression that the promise applied to the whole area. The loan was accordingly carried, and if it were not for the stupid blundering of the Council officials, the money should have been available months ago, and the works have now been well in hand. Mr O'Brien, engineer for the Parihaka Riding, however, has received instructions to prepare plans for the bridges on the Eltham Road, which are to be ready by the 15th of this month, when a special meeting of the Council is to be held, and, we presume, tenders will be called at once for them. The engineer has also to attend the meeting on that date and advise as to the expenditure of the loan. When these are completed, the road* leading to Opunake from Waimate will be in a thorough state of repair, with the exception of the gap caused by the want of the Punehu bridge on the Eltham Road in the Hawera County, and repairs to the bridges on the Main "South Road. Opunake will then command the traffic as far as the Auroa Road at the least, as it is by far the cheapest route for import and export, and the question naturally crops up whether it is advisable for the people in this area to allow tbeir arterial roads to remain under the control of a local body, in which the majority of whose members have no interest whatever, except to use them as a means of lleecing the public. A tollgate erected on the Taungatara would be a serious bar to traffic, and as soon as our jetty is,,re-erected such a toll would be a great'tax to the settlers from the Auroa Road westwards. It i 3 very evident that we shall have to take some step to get rid of the Taranaki Council control—and the sooner it is done the better. We know there is a strong feeling amongst settlers up the Eltham Road, and in the bash district generally, to have a

new county formed, because they recognise that Opunake must be their natural trade centre, although in the past they have been cut off owing to impassable state of the Eltham Road. Now, however, in the course of a few months that will be remedied, and this part of the district will be on an equal if not a better footing, as regards roads, than the Waimate district itself. To the north of Opunake steps are also being taken to metal all the chief district roads by means of loans, and we shall then have one of the best roaded districts in the province. The Kahui Road has raised a loan of £IBSO, the Ihaia £660, and the Ngariki is raising £1350, and no doubt the other roads "will follow suit. The portion of Waimate from the Taungatara to the block line running down the Auroa Road and the Otakeho River has a rateable value of £200,000 under the present valuation, and if a new county boundary were drawn there on the one side, and extend to the Newall Road just above Pungarehu on the other side, the valuation of the new county would be such that the Waimate portion would be entitled to five ridings, or five members out of the nine who would form the Council. The Waimate portion could be subdivided by making an Otakeho Riding, which might include Blocks 1 and 2, Waimate Survey District, and part of Block 18, Kaupokonui, with one member ; Oeo or Pihama Riding, extending from there to the Taungatara, with two members; and Kaupokonui Riding, taking in the bush district, with two members, or the bush district could be divided into two ridings, with one member each, as would best meet the wishes of the settlers interested. The sixth riding should be from the Taungataia to the Waiau River, which is all a special area for the £2OOO loan to do the total mileage of county road in the area; the seventh riding would run from the Waiau to the Oaonui River; the eighth from the Oaonui to the Waitaha River about a mile north of Rahotu ; and the ninth riding from the Waitaha River to the Newall Road, about two miles north of Pungarehu. This division would leave about seven miles of county road to the Waiau riding to maintain, and about six miles each to the Oaonui, Rahotu, and Pungarehu Ridings, which we consider would be a fair distribution of liability' on that account.