MANGAEHU BRIDGE

Taranaki Daily News, 21 March 1934, Page 5

MANGAEHU BRIDGE

CELEBRATION AT MAKAHU TOAST LIST HONOURED. OPENING OF BRIDGE MARKED. Once the ribbon across the new bridge tnr the Mangaehu stream between Makahu and Puniwhakau was cut yesterday the people present drove to the Makahu hall, where afternoon tea was served and a short toast list honoured. The hall was filled to capacity. Those at the head table were the Hon. C. E. Macmillan, the chairman (Mr. T. R. Anderson), chairman of the ‘ Stratford County Council, Mr. and Mrs. A. Coyne, Mrs. Anderson, Mr. W. J. Polson, M.P., Mrs. M. Ford, Mr. and Mrs. L. Bunn, Mr. P. Thomson, the district engineer of the Public Works Department (Mr. P. Keller) and the county engineer, Mr. J. W. Spence. The toast to Parliament was proposed by Mr. P. Thomson, Stratford, who said the institution was looked on as the highest in the land. Therefore its members should be men and women of capabilities who would be able to carry out their duties to the benefit of the country. . Hitherto Parliament consisted of mere men, but national affairs, he considered, would be looked after with even greater care now that women had gained a footing in the House. Women might be guided by the heart, more than the head, but that would not be a drawback in' the present days when everyone wanted sympathy and help. At no time in the history had the country come to such a national crisis as that which faced the country now, so that members of Parliament were faced with a very difficult task. In Mr. Polson the Stratford electorate had a worthy representative. Members of the Cabinet, he felt sure, were actuated by the highest motives, and prominent among Cabinet members was the Hoh. C. E. Macmillan, who had shown sympathy towards the backblocks settlers by making the erection of the new bridge possible for them. THE VIEW FROM INSIDE. Parliament was not the Government of the country, as the strongest party governed the country, but Parliament included all the parties, the Minister replied. The difference between a statesman and a politician Was that a statesman did something for everybody while the politician did everybody for something. Many people 1 considered that if only they could get into Parliament they could cure all the ills of the Dominion, but if they-were there they would find that the matter was not nearly so. simple as. that. The -first thing ..that, the young member realised was his insignificance, for there were 79 other men there, who had probably forgotten more about the young member’s subject than he knew. Sterling common sense was the only asset that gained a man respect in the House. . Times were undoubtedly never more critical than they were at the present time, and New Zealand’s complaint was common throughout the world. It was a time for the fervent propagandist who believed that he had the cure. Then there was the propagandist who wanted to do something for, himself, and it was hard for the people ,to discriminate among them. The only thing the elector could do was to vote for the honest man whose integrity was not open to question, no matter what his party. "Ask yourself,” the speaker said, “whether you would trust a candidate to administer your estate for your wife and children. If that man can be trusted by you to do that then he can be trusted to represent you honestly in Parliament If a man cannot get justice in any of the courts of the land he can appeal to Parliament for justice and not law. Parliament has a lot of these appeals to cope with and the Parliamentary system, though it might be criticised, is still in operation. My aim is to help to the greatest extent I can those who are most in need of aid, and among them are those who lack a bridge and access. I know their difficulties because : I have livied across a river too. I am glad that I have been able to help you.” MR. POLSON’S REPLY. “What I cannot understand is why all the politicians are inside the Cabinet and all the statesmen out,” said Mr. Polson in commencing his speech on a jocular note. “To be successful in Parliament a man does not need to be a fiery orator, but a man of definite principles who stands firmly for those tenets. The man who stands for something is always listened to with respect in Parliament, unless he speaks-too much. The one who is always on his feet gets scant recognition.”

-■ A member of Parliament had to preserve a certain independence of choice in supporting or not supporting the Government. If a member of the Government thought the Government was pursuing a policy which he considered wrong then he should oppose the Government in that, particular matter. He had had freedom of action and had never been condemned by the Government he supported because he opposed it at any time. Women had achieved a representative in Parliament in Mrs. McCombs, and Mr. Polson thought Parliament could well have more women members. “We have had a great deal of trouble with lack of metal and flood damage, but the Public Works Department has helped us in every way within its power,” stated Mr. Bunn in toasting the department. “Mr. Keller, his assistant engineer (Mr. J. E. Anderson) and the overseer at Whangamomona (Mr. A. J. Hbwley) have all treated us most generously. Miles of roads in the district have been metalled by unemployed relief men under the department, and that work has been of great assistance to us. Mr. Polson also, at the time of the cloudburst in the district, walked for 14 miles through mud and slush in order to view the damage, and then used all his influence to get us the help we wanted in clearing the roads and giving access to settlers who might have been blocked for months.” “Any assistance I have been able to give has been given willingly,” said Mr. P. Keller, district enginer, in acknowledging the toast. He paid tribute to his staff in connection with the work done in the districts of Puniwhakau and Makahu and went on to point out that the Public Works Department was an institution that had grown up in New Zealand and was serving one of the most useful purposes in the development of the Dominion. The Public Works was a department of which all sections of the community should be proud. Of recent years it had taken over a class of work which before it had not mainly concerned itself with. With the completion of many of the major public works in New Zealand and the advent .of the depression the department had suffered considerably, but as far as Mr. Bunn’s observation regarding unemployment were concerned, he felt that the department could handle the problem and 'probably handle it well. Mr. A. Coyne, one of the oldest settlers in the district, proposed the toast to the local bodies. . “Ax the oldest settler in the district and one of those who balloted for sections in this district in 1894, I wish to welcome the Minister and visitors to the giatrict,” Mr. Coyne said. “It is 30 years aince we had a Minister in the district, far the last one was the Hon. W. Hall-

Jones, who opened a bridge a chain from this hall in 1904.” SETTLEMENT OF MAKAHU. The land around Makahu was taken up in 1892 under the McKenzie Government, he continued. No section was supposed to be more than 200 acres, and all the Government did was to survey the area. The Government was supposed to road and bridge the district, but as only rimu bridges were erected and did not last as long as they should have done it was only right that the Government should replace the bridges as. they became useless. The land, however, still had to bear the cost of reading, and the settlers had to contribute to the bridges too. People might say that the original settlers got the land for next to nothing, but it had to be remembered that those settlers had faced innumerable hardships, were still paying special bridge, road and harbour rates, and in addition they had land much of which was unprofitable to farm. Thus they doubly Welcomed any aid the Government might give them such as had been given in the case of the bridge opened that day. “My early education in local body affairs was guided by the actions of my old friend Cr. Coyne,” said Mr. N. R. Cleland, chairman of the Whangamomona County Council, in replying to the toast. After paying a tribute to Mr. Coyne’s activities in local body work Mr. Cleland briefly outlined the position which today existed in the Whangamomona county, describing certain localities as the highest rated in New Zealand. . He would very much have liked the Minister to have extended his visit into the heart of the county, but as this could not be managed it gave him pleasure to know that at least one corner of the county had hadthe pleasure of entertaining a Minister of the Crown. Mr. Cleland congratulated the Strathmore riding of his county and the Makahu riding of the Stratford county upon the advent of a good metalled road connecting the two districts. At the same time, he said, the settlers on this class of land should never have been asked to contribute to-

wards the cost of the bridge. The time, he asserted, had arrived when it was necessary to lower the burden of rates on back country land, because it needed all the resources at the command of settlers to return their land to a state of productivity. If, he said, the Government was unable to find the money for building necessary bridges etc. out of the Consolidated Fund it would just have to be found from elsewhere. The settlers in the backblocks had earned a “show.” They were entitled to a fighting chance, and the best way to give them that was to relieve them of the burden of rates.