CORRESPONDENCE

Southland Times, Issue 19897, 16 June 1926, Page 9

CORRESPONDENCE

Letters must be written in ink and on one side of the paper. Unless a signature, not necessarily for publication, accompanies a letter as a guarantee of good faith it will not be considered. An asterisk attached to the signature to a published letter denotes that some portion has been deleted by the Editor, a right which is exercised in questions of public policy, libel, ’ good taste and fair play. HIGHWAY TO FORTROSE To the Editor. ■ Sir, —After following with much interest the correspondence which has resulted from the meetings of ratepayers in connection with the proposed main highway to Fortrose via Gorge Road, I desire to add a few remarks in an endeavour to assist Mr Charles Christie, the apparent chief spokesman for the lower Toe Toes riding, in his effort to place before his ratepayers the true position as regards this highway. ! In the ppening remarks of the principal 1 advocates they state that the scheme was proposed some 20 to 25 years ago and that , if it was necessary then it is much more so now. These gentlemen know better than i I do that in those years the townships of • Fortrose and Waimahaka were much busier | and more populous and, as far as Fortrose !is concerned, apparently much more pros- ' perous than they are to-day, also the cost i of road and bridge construction and main- ! tenance was only a fraction of the presentday rate. If the construction of the bridge and road was not warranted under those conditions surely it is much less necessary now. Another argument put forward is that the cost of maintenance is going to be le-:s through the traffic being diverted to two channels, their estimate being one-third of the present maintenance costs for each road, leaving, I presume, one-third for distribution elsewhere. Do they forget that the action of frost, a big factor in road repair, as well as floods and other weather conditions, must do twice as much damage on two roads of equal length as on one? They have also in preparing their estimates of maintenance obviously overlooked the fact that when the passenger bus and heavy motor truck traffic at present carried Iby and returning revenue to the railways takes to the more permanent highway it certainly will not benefit their inclusion. These things considered, I feel sure the less the highway supporters use the reduced maintenance lever the better chance they have of its realisation. At the Waimahaka meeting the ratej payers were fortunate in having the advice : of two of the most successful farmers and i business men in Southland. That advice, ■ contrary to being selfish, as they are acI ersed, was given for the benefit of less i informed and less experienced ratepayers, I and I believe had it been more difficult I to obtain would have been more highly i valued. At the present time big schemes • are being considered and put into effect ' which our farm lands can be quite successi fully worked without. In these not too I prosperous times schemes of this sort are I nothing more or less than the proverbial last straw and I think the principal movers iof this white elephant in the proposed • highway will admit that they are expediting j that last straw to manv farmers less for- ! Innately placed than themselves. In conI elusion, I would remind those ratepayers ! no.t conversant with the geographical posi- ’ tion of this road, that it passes closely to i a large tract of land, the nature of which, | even if drained as the State proposes, will ! not possess any asset beyond its roads and ■ fences so that the greater portion of the {revenue required for its construction will ! l>e drawn from areas neither directly nor ! indirectly benefiting. Under these circum- ! stances, therefore, it. is the duty of the | councillors concerned to centre their at- | tention on the declaration of the present ' main road to a main highway and not on | a byway which feeds a small section of I the ratepayers, a bog. and the sea.—l am, 1 etc., R. S. GRAHAM. ■ Mat aura Island, June 13, 1926.