FAVOURABLE CONSIDERATION

Taranaki Daily News, 7 June 1934, Page 7

FAVOURABLE CONSIDERATION

COUNTY DEPUTATION REQUEST. \ OPENING UP BACK COUNTRY. "Favourable consideration was assured a Taranaki County Council deputation last night in response to. a request for a. grant of £lOO • to expend on the Hill Road at the back of Egmont Village to open Up locked-in back country. The. deputation headed by Mr. S. Vickers (chairman) placed its representations before the Minister of Public Works (the Hon. J. Bitchener)? The Minister was introduced by Mr. S. G. Smith, M.P. Other members of the deptuation were Messrs. W. Cartwright, W. Hall and L. Andrew, Mr. C, A. Wilkinson, M.P., and Mr. P. Keller, Public Works Department engineer, were present; Representations regarding the Te Arei Road bridge (Waitara riding) and Upper Plymouth Road were also put before the Minister. The Te Arei bridge, for which a £5OO grant was sought, vzas situated in the centre of a very good district which led to the back, country, said Mr., Vickers. It had developed unfortunately and unexpectedly that the bridge had to be renewed. The iron structure purchased several years ago had not stood up very well. The Waitara riding was hampered in that before the Highways Board was formed it had gone in for a roading improvement scheme which was practically finished before the board operated. The loan in connection therewith was £12,200, carrying an annual interest payment of £823 10s. The county was hampered with- the large number of bridges to be built and maintained, and a general bridge loan of £12,784 had been raised. Waitara riding carried 45 per cent, of responsibility in connection with this loan. The unimproved value of‘the land over the whole riding was £lB an acre, and the rates over the whole area. Was 4s 914 d, although individual farmers paid up to 12s an acre on farm lands. The probable cost of the bridge was £l4OO to £l5OO. Mr. Vickers applied for a grant of £lOO for pioneering work on Hill Road at the back of Egmont Village. The road was 1% miles long and the outlet for a lot of undeveloped land. To do the. required work would open up a section of back country and help recent settlers on their holdings, he said. ' The third request was for assistance in connection' with the formation and metalling of 1| miles, of Upper Plymouth Road leading into Carrington Road. Mr. Vickers asked if the work could be done under similar conditions to those under which Carrington Road had been done? The completion of the road would make a complete circuit for mail delivery and link up the coastal district ■ with this area. The conditions on the Carrington Road were the finding of up to £5OO by the County Council. That work had been four miles of roading, while the Upper Plymouth stretch would be approximately one-third of that distance. It was hopeless to expect the local people to go into a loan proposal, and a loan was not desired. Mr. Keller told the Minister tha| there still remained three-quarters of a mile of metalling to do on Carrington Road. All the formation and bridge work was done. The Minister in reply sjdd the department had no bridge renewal fund or money to vote whatever. On a recent trip in the far north he had noticed bridges rotting away. What the future position would be he did not know. He had discussed with the Minister of Finance the provision of a fund for the renewal of bridges. Until there was such a fund hte department was helpless to assist,even to the smallest extent. He could see' no way to help at the present time in what would be the restoration of a fairly. ; costly bridge for the riding. As for‘the other two requests, iiothing 'would give him greater pleasure than to help. He could not make any definite promises, but if these two .were the most urgent matters it ought to be possible to meet them when the usual applications were made through the district engineer. , . Mr. Hall said Te Arei Road was practically the main road out of the back country to New Plymouth and carried a considerable amount of the traffic of other counties, including stock regularly every week from Clifton county.