BACK-BLOCKS ROADS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19866, 14 June 1927, Page 6

BACK-BLOCKS ROADS

IN WAITOTARA FINE ORDER COMMENTED ON. That the average ratepayer did not realise what had been done by the Waitotaru County Council in recent years, in improvements on back-country roads, was the opinion expressed by Cr. L. Jones at yesterday’s meeting of the Council. Cr. Jones said he did not think any local body had done its work cheaper, or had got better by-roads. The Dominion’s Consolidated Fund had found a large proportion of the cost and in many cases had halved the cost with the Council. Cr. R. Farley said that the majority of the back-cC untry roads were of a good surface, width and crown, and he wished to compliment the engineer (Mr. T. Dix) on the manner in which these roads had been put into excellent order at a small expenditure. The chairman (Mr. W. Morrison) paid a tribute to the settlors who had seen fit to rate their back-block lands in order to obtain roads. He added that the engineer looked after the backcountry settlers well, and in the Waitotara County these settlers could not say, as they did in other counties, that they never saw Hhc engineer. While the Waitotara County Council had not concentrated on its main road, he thought it had the best metalled road between Taranaki and Wellington. A scheme for tarring the main road would be discussed later.