THE Thames Advertiser. TUESDAY, NOV. 16, 1875.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VIII, Issue 2200, 16 November 1875, Page 2

THE Thames Advertiser. TUESDAY, NOV. 16, 1875.

No other district ia. the colony, and we may with truth aver, no other-commu-nity of British subjects in the world, is in respect of roadway communication situated'asare the people of the Thames, It may be argued we offer an exceptional case, that we have -Jbuilfc a large town, spent hundreds of thousands of pounds, and d'avo access to an area of hilly and almust inaccessible country under terms from the owners qf.tjia soil for a specific, purpose only; thaQfc waßno part of the contract with the Government that as' our wants inf creased and our field of operations ex; tended, wo should require; the roads to be continued and the rivers bridged j yet this is'-the only argument, silly as it may be, which can be advanced in excuse lor the unpardonable procrastination of the Government.. It' is not

long since theParawai Highway. Boai;<L madelan effort to cut through the hill

on the north bank of the Kauaeranga riyer, but were repulsefcty a decriped oldfchief, who with tomanafk tojnaiid' foiblde the necessary' improvement -fand bo the area for 10,000 people ft founded by this river on-tlie'sQuth andTararu point on the north,- a distance of some three mile?. The want of roadways is. most severely felt, and by none more than by those engaged to the kauri gum trade.'.On the Kauaeranga creek thero at the time over 300 men employed in" 'this indus-' try ;alpue, exclusive of.• p f .large, staff of busbinen. But the dangers of transporting the gum. to the township are .great, and. tho sufferings of the | wretched pack horses extreme, the loss to those engaged in its purchase and transit being often great in cattle from the frightful slate of the road. But these losses are but small when ; compared with the loss of life to this] fatal stream. In pur columns, to-day will; be found the report of two other deaths! by drowning, making a. total of sixteen: persons who have thus perished since the opening of the field. With few exceptions these casualties have curred for want of a bridge, and some; simple contrivance for protecting and saving life at the upper fords used by the gum packers. Horses are swept away*' their drivers"sink, in the flood, apd families are left without a breadwinner; the ghastly occurrence comes again, and yet again, and still the Government procrastinate and temporise with us and the native lords of the soil, and shirk their duty, and the grave responsibility which these mournful cases involve.. We have to our columns urged the execution of these works time after time until the iteration has become irksome. The benefits which would accrue to the town, the advantages

they would afford to mill owners, settlers, miners, gum diggers, and carters; the manifest utility to the natives< themselves, who would enjoy all their use without taxation; the connection they would : establish be : tween our: distant 1 goldfields"and ! the small agricultural settlement just merging into life—these and many others have been submitted to the represents tives of the two Governments by deputations, in petitions, and epistolary correspondence, and with what results ? Deputations have been politely received and requested to submit their proposals In, writing, and nothing more is heard of ( them. -Petitions have been

received, presented, acknowledged, and 1 consigned to the wasto paper basketj ! and correspondence answered in. the ( most approved style of official ambi- .: B uit y- ■■■' - ~-■,.. : During the Premier's visit he was ■; interviewed on the subject, and some indefinite promise exacted,' on, which, wo place but little reliance. The principal objection to a bridge is its liability to be carried away by the rafts of logs coming down to the Shortland mills.. So, then, lives are to be sacrificed, and the interests of 10,000 people are to be made subservient to a saw, mill company?. This is the position in which this objection places us. We admit it, and plead weariness and disgust at the; censurable apathy of .the Government. But is it not pal-" pable if a bridge were'carried away from this cause the company would be held responsible, or is this river-to be conserved for the exclusive benefit of any company 1 ' In administering the revenue appropriated for public .workS'.tbis.djstrict has enjoyed but-a younger brother's portion. We had not four or five members in the House whom it was politic to suborn by a "political" rail (or other) road. We do not possess a 'fertile region abounding in mineral and other resources like Kaipara, which .necessitated a costly line of railway. We returned one member, and received —nothing which our goldfields revenue ( did'not iflbr'e than pay fori ■• J The first duty of a wise Government is to construct roads and bridges, as for all purposes they are essential to the progress of a people. The Romans subdued the Ancient Britons through the splendid roads they made, and a similar policy would be extremely beneficial in New Zealand. , : ,,,, : ' ~,.,., ~.;, 'We trust these two melancholy deaths will arouse in the Gouernment a strong feeling of comptfssibniand f&jiaorse, for they are morally responsible for the untimely death.qf these two men, and if lost to a' se^'of'duty we i; hope'they will be actuated by the feelings o|

It is just as we expected. The goldEolds aro not to receive ._ a single ipennyj: either as a "special allowance" or as a subsidy "upon their gpldfiplds revenue or "rate';' "of out' of the' money: voted for Koad Boards and Municipalities at the last session,of the General Assembly, Yesterday tbVlocai' bodies at the Thames received a telegram from .Mr O'Connor, the Provincial Secretary of Nelson, to thefollowingeiFectr-'iTliWfljci ß lib provision for giving effect to the subsidies provided in the Abolition Bill." This 1 our local bodies knew beMe quite as well as Mr O'Connor. There is no provision for payißg 1 ANY: subsidy Jo. local bodies upon the basis ot lapt year's rates, as. the Abolition Bill is not yet in operation, but tbe Colonial Treasurer told the memb'crs of the House that ho would distribute among the Koad Boards and Municipals tics one-third of the "endowments" con* templated under the Act, and he obtained a rote to enable tho Government to carry out that promise. What did Major .Atkinson /-really; jnean, and; why have the Government invited '-'all the local bodies to send in returns of tho rate*) .actually received by them laat year ? We all know that it is that these rates may be and the subsidies, are to be allotted upon lhe| principle' laid down in the Abolition Bill) the Koad Boards receiving double- the amount of the Municipalities. Then why, we. ask,. should,, the only other "rate"' uk J der the Abolition Bill bo excluded from this piece of gonorosity on

the part.of; the Government P- Wo con--Miithnt: after the deductions provided for in the, 15th" olause of tbo Abolition Bill have teen made, tho balance should be suKsidisoci'as a "rate," and it would not b&Tdifficult matter for tho Governmeht'themselves to sit down and show what that balance really was last year. We contend,' further, that if any; prinoipld of subsidising tho local bodies in accordance with last year's rates is to bo adopted, it must be made in some way to reach the case of tho goldfields. It requires no provision'by'law to hand over money voted by tho Assembly for tho local bodies to thoso bodies, ani tho :coming into" Bporation of the Abolition Bill does not alter or "change bur argument.- We aßk for a fair, share of the £50,000—0r whatever sum was voted— but under the proposals-of the- Ministry we are not likely to.- receive anything of the kind.