WAIMATE ROAD BOARD.

Opunake Times, Volume V, Issue 203, 14 August 1896, Page 2

WAIMATE ROAD BOARD.

We notice that Mr W. Blennerhassett has given notice of motion for subdividing the Waimate Road District into seven ridings. This is cutting it pretty fine now that the district has been reduced in size by the severance of the eastern end, and we do not see that any beneficial effect will result from such a subdivision, whilst the general control is central. We believe that Mr Pearce's suggestion to have three Road Boards—if each district wants the control of its own funds — would be the surest way of attaining that end, and would result in more economical administration and give more satisfaction. There is now a very strained feeling between the Eltham Road section and the open country, as the former having taxed themselves heavily to make their own main road by means of loan, have a decided objection to allowing their rates being taken to put the Main South Road in repair, and this latter road has got into such a fearful state that all the available resources of the Board would be required to put it in order. If, in the past, the land fund accruing from lands between the main road and the sea and along the road itself had been funded and kept in reserve there would now be plenty of money available to re-make the road from end to end, but instead the money was taken by the Board and used for other purposes, so that now when the road is impassable there are no funds to do it with. We do not see how cutting the district into seven ridings is going to ease off the difficulty which the Board has now to face, when it is a united effort which is necessary to pull it out of the mud.