GOVERNMENT ROADS AND WATER SUPPLY.

West Coast Times, Issue 1008, 15 December 1868, Page 2

GOVERNMENT ROADS AND WATER SUPPLY.

To the Editor of the West Coast Times and Observer. Sir — In answer to _a letter signed " Aquarius," published iv your paper of this date, first, the great thing to be studied is the permanent cheapening of living. His first qucrie cites the Christchurch road as a loss, and useless expense. Is "Aquarius" aware that there is a saving of upwards of £1000 per week in the price of stock uloue to the consumers of tho West Coast through the means of this road ? "Aquarius" states that it costs £6200 per annum to maintain. £600,000 per annum saving on stock, I think, without any other benefit, satisfactorily answers that portion of his letter. He speaks of self-supporting ; the way that that should

be done is by a toll at each crossing place — a toll on the Christchurch road, say every ten miles or thereabouts, as they are in Victoria, at sixpence a-head for stock, and a penny for sheep, would well keep the road in repair and help to make others. As our country is impassab'e except on roads, the expense of one toll-house would be ample, say at the Bealey or Arahura, and there, say if a toll was levied of five Bhillings for cattle aud sixpence for sheep, wduld be a niere trifle considering what the consumer has gained and will gain by the road. Now as to fnture Koads and Water Supply. ■' Does ''Aquarius" know that there is scarcely a hill or a gully from the Kanieri te the Grey River for six miles back, and in soine places twenty miles kick, but what he will find the enterprising digger 1 making llis own living' and assisting id support the country. Could we put twenty years revenue into" one it would be impossible eveu then for the Gbvernhlent to bring water to a.ll the pjaces where it would pay to bring it; It is as miicli oijfc of the line of* legitimate Government as it would be to pay wages and get the gold themselves. The proper thing to dp is td allow private enterprise to work out all these things, the Government in every possible way facilitating cheap living and that great Object is to be obtained in two. ways— first; by tlie cotistriictiori of good roads to the centres of population ; concentrate their opei-ations, and at once, at every cost, constructing a road as ranges, &c, will permit, from Hokitika town to the Grey River, twenty miles inland. I will now show the course it should go, and how it would act. First, as to its course : from Hokitika to the sixth mile post on the Ohristchurch road, scarcely a terrace to interrupt that point would he- reached in about four miles; straight oh thence to Stafford Town, from two to three miles \ thud, about s>ix and a-half miles of road would furnish Stafford Town with all they' consumed, and also the Waimek district, at about 15s per ton, which now costs. £4 td £5 ; thence from Stafford Town. by liamploughto.the .Teremukaii ! dnd Greeiisione; about ten miles ; to the latter place goods could be taken for — say, 30s per ton, now costing £15 ; thence by the New River, cheapening and facilitating in javaler proportion to the mileage, that is to say, a road from Hokitika, twenty-five miles, would save more than its entire construction to the enterprising digger Avithin a year. The next great principle to establish the country and facilitate the digger, is opening up the same for cultivation. With the great difficulties there are to contend with in cultivating the land, every facility and encouragement should be given to those embarking in such undertaking. A liberal land law should be adopted by our Government allowing the bona fide settler to squat down wherever he chooses, so long as he does ndt interfere- with the digger, and give him a grant of fifty acres for every five he had cleared within twfl years from the date of his occupation. Hy such a law you would give the digger the greatest portion of his requirements at his own door, without the enormous expense of carriage. . Here we^are in .the most difficult pdrt.of the Australian group, for cultivation, and improvement, with ail almost prdiiibitdry land regulation. Victoria, after twenty years, with her lands at an upset price of 20s per acre for fine land, and a clear country, has found it desirable to give deferred payments, running over ten years, for the small price of 20s per acre. Her citizens and diggers are now reaping the benefit of the^ alteration by the cheap cosf of the, necessaries,, qf life— even we, at the distance of 12,000 iriiles, are partake ing of the benefit derived therefrom. in Queensland, another country with the finest soil known, they sell the land at 2s Cd per acre in certain districts ; the highest being £1 per acre. They also give land grants as stimulants to new industries, such as ten acres for every acre of cotton, vines, &c, planted. The only way to perform great works is by borrowing money, and the way to adopt is to pay the interest by taxation, and that taxation to be levied so as to bear fairly on all. With reference to roads by toll-gates, i think I have said enough to show the deep- thinking portion of the community that the Government have quite enough to do without interfering with water for the present. Aquarius cites Victoria — I will tell him in Victoria the roads were first made ; and , in many districts, with a larger population than the West Coast, there is no water supply, and even none for the digger, that is, for the purposes of his occupation. Ballarat, the oldest and greatest diggings in the world, has neither Government nor

Corporation water supply, except for domestic purposes ; the great Van Yean water works only supplies for domestic purposes. I think I have said enough to show that roads should be our chief ainij hoping that our Government wiil abandon everything; and concentrate their operations in a systematical manner of road making. Hokitika being, as it wer 1 , the centre of the Colony, as the heart is to the system j the main road should commence there and go to the chief centres of population, as the arteries do to the main portions of the body. A right commencement is an everlasting savißgi I am, Skj Yours respectfully, J. JACKSON. Arahura, Dec. 11, 1868;