A Re-Arrangement of Highway Boards.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1820, 14 April 1886, Page 3

A Re-Arrangement of Highway Boards.

To the Editor of the Standard. gi* t ~ I think a re-arrangement of the Highway Board* in the Lower Valley is iNMNIjr. The progress oi settlement appears to demand it. Matters have got into a peculiar groove and require changing 1 The psopts oi the North East Taratvu are n<>t satisfied with the conduct of business by too Taratahi-Carterton Highway Board. 2. I should like to s«e the Matar&wa District join itself to the Featherston District. 3. I am afraid that it is necessary for the residents of th« Lower Valley across the Ruamahnoga to separate themselves from the Featherston Highway District and elect anew Board. 1 desired a discussion to take place in the Coonty Council upon the matter when I pro senUd the petition from the residents of the North East Taratahi. The County Coanci. is the proper place in whiclr such a discuffiion 1 should be held. So little is tbs question understood however by those wbo mad the Council, and so hurried is the business at the monthly meetings that the discussion wabarked. It was put off. only to break out in a worse form. Whatever wo may do in the Lower Valley lei us at any rate be guided by good priori piss at local self government, and not tun into the mistake committed by the people of the North Valley in erecting too many High way Hoards. Tho only principle of any good applicable to New Zealand generally i“ the following ; - That while the area of a county should not be leas than three million acres with a popu lotion h,uii of twenty thousand people the area of a road district should not he '.ess than two hmdred thousand acres, with no popnlation basis. This would give about 26 Counties for the Colony and about three hundred Road Boards. I therefore told the settlers of the North East Taratahi, who requested ms to present their petition to the Council, that I Mold not support it, as I do not think their proposed new Board would coutain twentyfive thousand seres What they should do is to separate their Ward from the Taratahi- , Carterton Highway Board and join themselves | to the Masterton Highway Beard. As to Malsrawa—l should be very pleased ! by my fellow settlers in that district con- ; sidering the advisability of joining themselves to the Featherston Highway Board. Our common centra is Greytown. and we must devise some plan of putting up a more substantial swing bridge. 1 With regard to the Lower Valley across the i Wtibenga Bridge. I think we had better , form a new Road District there. Featherston ; Highway Board proper contains over a million aeres. We can very rightly divide it ! into two. The Uartinborough-Pahau Road, ; the AwLea Road, and the road up Gladstone way will best be looked after by tbe settlers ■ most interested. There are other matters ' to which the immediate settlers understand batter than those living at a distance. 1 think it best to separata, not hurriedly but quietly, and in a friendly manner. I especially impress this upon settlers: to act in a friendly 1 way with each other in one of tbe most important of iht-ir social duties, the moulding and extent of the form of local government onder which they live. Not to do anything through petty feeling or prejudice, but to act only for what they mink is best lor ail sides. 1 ( Not to act so as to disobey tbe law, but rather I to sorry it out. Bow often and constantly ! ' do I regret that the two counties had uot ! bean amalgamated long ago, when the quefRon of this letter would have been treated j vary differently to what it has been. But Mr i 1 Booth prevented that, and it is pitucipaUy ' because I cannot help seeing he docs not Understand ont wants, after being placed at tb* besd of nearly all oar local concerns, that I appear to act in an unfriendly way to him. Bat he does not understand them and 1 can not help speaking the truth. I am, Ac., Coleman I'.u illifb. Pry River, April 12, 1886.