The Te Aroha News Published Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday Mornings. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1923 PRECIOUS METAL

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6409, 1 November 1923, Page 4

The Te Aroha News Published Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday Mornings. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1923 PRECIOUS METAL

TO call road metal precious metal can only be really understood by those who have been in a district where road metal is scarce and have accordingly experienced what the lack of it means to the settlers’ communications in the back-blocks. The' absence of it in winter time has meant what would otherwise have been good road being little better than a mud track or even worse still—a series of bog holes. In a town and district like Opotiki, in the Bay of Plenty, the roads in all directions are extraordinarily good and a great asset to that fertile district. These fine .streets and roads are formed with an exceptionally good type of river metal which abounds on the banks of the Otara and Wioweka rivers. The same provision of nature in a less degree accounts for the excellent loads in the Gisborne district and about Whakatane. On the other hand, at Tauranga, the greatest drawback in providing roading facilities has been the absence of suitable metal Consequently settlement has been retarded much beyond what the merits of the district warranted. Fortunately for the Te Aroha district nature has been more generous and the supply of good metal here is much to be thankful for. It is an asset which settlers, no doubt, will highly value. But if the discussion on the Waiorongomai quarry is a criterion of the feelings and intentions of some members of the Piako County Council it is evident that the members for the ridings nearer Te Aroha will have to safeguard their rights—the rights conferred by nature—on the Te Aroha district. It is no doubt true that the ridings nearer Morrinsville suffer in consequence of the quarry being so

near to Te Aroha and that local ridings reap a great advantage, but the fault, if any, lies with nature. It is not, as some of our Morrinsville friends would have us believe, a question of a. right or wrong commercial system or the presence or absence of business principles, primarily, in regard to the Council's administration of the affairs of the quarry. The adoption of business principles are necessary —beyond question in connection with any such undertaking. But no just commercial system cannot remove the disabilities that the further ridings suffer in consequence of the distance from Waiorong-omai quarry, nor can any fair business principles rob Te Aroha district ridings of the advantages they enjoy because of proximity to the quarry. Obviously the quarrel of Morrinsville riding—if we may for argument sake use the word quarrel—is with nature. The remedy of our friends lies in going to nature and finding a suitable quarry nearer home.