BAD ROAD TO PARIROA PA

Taranaki Daily News, 13 January 1932, Page 10

BAD ROAD TO PARIROA PA

CHIEF’S NOVEL PROPOSAL. WILL REPAIR IF NO RATES. A local body meeting is not usually the place where one would expect to fiud the particular characteristics of two distinct races at variance, but the simple directness of the Maori clashed with the calculated justice of the pakeha at yesterday’s meeting of the Patea County Council over a request for road repairs and the matter of some outstanding rates.

Just as his ancestors led the Maori people in their skirmishes against relatives on the south side of the Patea River in the days of fern and fish, so is Mr. W. Tupito, who can trace his ancestry through the 20 generations to Turi’s landing, conducting the present brush with recognised authority. It is true that changing times have necessitated the use of a pen instead of the more effective mere; it is also true that the action is considerably slower; but there is no doubt that Mr. Tupito is using his modern weapons with skil and diplomacy.

The matter was opened at the December meeting of the council when Mr. Tupito, who is the present head of the Pariroa Pa, near the railway line at Kakaramea, a few miles north of Patea, and.chief of the Maori people in that locality, wrote to the council: “We are begging you to repair the road, to Pariroa Pa,” he wrote. “It is about 35 years since .the pa was first inhabited and the council has not yet done any work on the last section leading to the pa.” The road referred to is about two miles long and branches off from beyond the railway line. It serves the residents cf the pa and a few eettlers on Maori land in the vicinity. “During past years we have done all repairs on this road—and yet the county council expects us to pay rates,” concluded Mr. Tupito. The road was really in a very bad state and he expressed the hope that the council would meet them in the matter.

The council decided at that meeting to inform the writer that the matter of road repairs would be considered only when the natives had paid the rates on their Pariroa properties. At yesterday’s meeting Mr. Tupito's reply was received. “I understood you to have the authority to collect by law the rates owing you by the Maoris,” wrote the chief. “Now, I have coma to the conclusion that the only reason the council does not bother to repair the road is because it is a Maori road. The Maoris have not paid the rates because no effort has been made to begin repairing the road. Now, we agree to repair this road ourselves, if, from now on, there is no necessity for the Maoris here to pay rates.”

After due consideration the chairman, Mr. W. G. Belton, instructed the clerk to point out to Mr. Tupito and his Maoris that they used other roads in the county just as much as the white settlers and they would be required to pay their rates in the same manner.