USE OF ROADS FOrt BUILDING SITES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13540, 18 October 1907, Page 3

USE OF ROADS FOrt BUILDING SITES.

A LEGAL OPINION.

Messrs Malone, Anderson and Johnutono wero recontly asked to advise the Stratford County Council if there was anj r way in r which portions of the roads laid off in hilly outlying districts could bo mado available for residence sites for settlers. The following opinion was forwarded by the solicitors to the Council:— "We. have considered the question and are of opinion that if the necessary local conditions exist, parts of these roads may be stopped and sold to tiio owners of tho adjacent lands. In the first place it is provided by section 129 of The Public Works Compilation Act, 1905, that no road along the bank of a river shall be stopped for any reason whatever, so this opinion must not be considered to have reference to any such road. Sections 129 and 130 give power to stop roads when a way to the land in tho vicinity as convenient as that previously existing is loft provided. The same sections give power to stop any roads so long as the owners of lands to which such roads give access consent in writing to such stoppage. . . Another important section is section 136, which provides that if a road is proposed ,to bo stopped upon tho motion of and solely for the convenience of any private person, snch person [ shall pay all the costs incurred thereby, including tho cost of constructing a new road' if the local authority is of opinion that such new road is necessary in the place of the road stopped, and no, steps shall be taken towards stopping such, road .until such person pays into the district fund the whole estimated cost of the proposed alteration. Section 134 provides, for the salo of stopped roads. In the case of the Council the Magistrate would certify that the road had been stopped as by law requiredand order that tho same should be sold. Tho land would then be valued by one or more competent valuers appointed by tho Council, and offered to the adjacent owners at such valuation. In the event* of their declining to purchase at the price the land could be sold at public auction." The opinion was considered by tho Council on Wednesday. In reading tho opinion through, the Chairman emphasised tho words "no road along the bank of a river shall bo stopped for any reason whatever." ''Now, isn't it precisely these roads we want to utilise?" he asked. The Chairman struck the keynote of th 6 position. A brief review of th© facts may be interesting. In the hilly country of the Stratford County it is oil the whole very difficult to secure suitable dwelling, sites. Where $he "rivers run through this broken courttry there aro flat beds on one side, cliffs, of course, on the other. Along these flat beds, or, to be more accurate, along the riverside, for good distances run tho roads. The courses of the rivers are winding, but the roads, though it is substantially correct to say they follow the water courses, do not imitate their windings; the roads, practically speaking, run straight. This' really means that tho road-lines on the far side from the rivers run straight. From these far-side lines to the river is all "road." Obviously, the road is more than one chain wide in places — in some places several chains. It is this waste of road tkat the Council wishes to deal with for the benefit of tho settlers who require convenient, flat dwelling sites and who would be willing to purchase portions of such svaste road. The Act, it appears, has not anticipated such a position arising. To revert to the Council's discussion : Councillor Wood regretted that the Council could not do anything in the matter, but said 'that he -was not quite sure that tho solicitors had gono into tho position from the viewpoint the Council required. The Chairman said that it had been i the settled policy of Parliament /or the last fifteen or sixteen years that these roads should remain public reserves. The matter was then dropped.