DEPUTATIONS TO THE HON. MR

Otago Witness, 5 December 1900, Page 44

DEPUTATIONS TO THE HON. MR

METAL FOR INCHCLUTHA. A deputation from Inchclutha waited on the Hon. Mr Ward, Minister of Railways, on Friday mornizig at the Grand Hotel to request him to allow road metal to be conveyed to the district from Dunedin free of charge. Mr James Allen, M.H.R. for Bruce, introduced the deputation, which consisted of Messrs J. Mosley, W. S. Mosley, and J. Smith, Mr J. "W. Thomson, M.H.R., was also present. Mr J. Mosley, the representative of the Matau Riding in the Olutha County Council, read the following petition, signed by 40 farmers and settlers at Inchclutha, on the matter : — We, the undersigned ratepayers and settlers of Inchclutha, would humbly and respectfully 1 show that, having taken power to borrow a ! certain sum of money (£3500) under " The Local Bodies' Loans Act, 1886," for the purpose of metalling roads at Inchclutha, we would set forth the great disadvantage we are under ' by having no metal within a reasonable distance, causing us to get our metal brought by rail to Stirling from Logan's Point, Dunedin, which makes it very costly; and, further, seeing we have already got a debt of J61630 for drainage, and hitherto, owing to the very heavy expense we have been put to in protecting ourselves from the river, which has necessitated the levying of taxation on an outlay of i-6000 in protection works ; and, further, owing to the river rilling lip its bed with tailings from recent gold lnimng operations, thereby rendering a further^ heavy expense on the before-mentioned protection works necessary, we would hum LI v and respectfully petition you to grant the haulage of metal free to Stirling station. The speaker advanced reasons for the request made by the petitioners, and said if the Minister could give the assistance asked for the district would be in a position, to complete its system of roads. Mr W. S. Mosley and Mr J. Smith also addressed the Minister. Mr J. Allen said he know the district well, and the wants of the people in respect to roads were great. In the winter time many of the roads were in an exceedingly bad state. If the Minister could make a concession on road metal hs would get a return ten-fold on the railways on account of the produce that would be sent over them. Mr J. W. Thomson suggested that the empty trucks now sent to Kaitangata for coal might be utilised to carry metal as far as Stirling. If that were done the cost of carriage to the department would not be very great. He knew the district well, having represented it for some years, and he recognised that it was a great drawback to the settlers that there was no metal in Inchclutha. The Hon. Mr Ward promised to go into the matter with a view to see if anything could be done to assist the settlers. He pointed out, however, that to make differential railway rates in favour of any particular district was against the railway policy, unless some extraordinary competitive circumstances existed ; and if concessions were made in rag'ard to the carriage of metal the tariff should apply to the whole colony, and not to any one district. To make such reductions, or to carry road metal free, would mean that the loss of revenue would have to be made up by increasing the tariff on other goods" carried. Therefore, while the proposition of the deputation seemed theoretically to be a feasible way out of the difficulty, injpraotioa $as

' not so. He would not like to say that some concession ought not to be made in the car1 riage of road metal; but in the meantime i the best course for the deputation was to apply to the Minister of Lands for assistance. The settlers appeared, from the statements placed Tsefore him, to have done all they could to help themselves, and under the circumstances they had a right to expect help ! from the department which had charge of the roads. In answer to Mr Allen, the Hon. Mr Ward said he was prepared to confer with the Minister of Lands in the matter, and to represent the position to him. Personally he would take into consideration the advisability of making concessions to the colony as a whole for the carriage of road metal on the railways of the colony, DRAINAGE BOARD FOR INCHCLUTHA. The same deputation brought under the ] notice of the Minister the qae&tion of the : formation of a drainage board for Inchclutha. j Mr J. _Mosley, avlio acted as spokesman, said j an application was made to the Governor-in-Council in June last to authorise the formation of a drainage board, but so far no reply i had been received. j The Hon. Mr Ward said he would make j inquiries and asc3rtain the cause of the j stoppage. The result of his investigations he i would communicate to Mr Allen. j ——————————— i