A LOADING DIFFICULTY

Otago Witness, Issue 3103, 3 September 1913, Page 7

A LOADING DIFFICULTY

PETITION FROM NIGHTCAPS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, August 21. A petition from 43 residents of Nightcups district was presented to Parliament to-day atking for the remedy of a roading difficulty. The petitioners represent that they are owners or occupiers of Government property to a value of between £250,030 and £300,000, upon which they pay rates to the amount of £7OO per year. The only means of ingress and egress between their farms and Nightcaps is by the Manuka Hill road, of which the first two miles from Morley village outwards are absolutely impassable for three or four Months in the year owing to the excessive carting of coal. Six years ago this stretch of two miles formed one of the best roads in Southland, but to-day it was nothing short of a quagmire—a bog from one end to the other. Recently coal leases had been granted to two separate companies, which expected to have an annual output of 7000 tons. 'lf all this was to be carted it would create fix,; miles of impassable road in place of two. The petitioners therefore made two requests —(1) That the Government grant a sum sufficient to macadamise the whole length of the Manuka Hill road from Morley village t, the areas granted for development, cr (2) that the Government accede to the petition of Wallace and Southland residents, already presented, asking that Parliament

take over the Wairio Railway and Coal Company’s line as a Government line and immediately proceed with its construction and completion.