‘Proper thing’ to support Empire
A clause in the Appropriation Bill authorises the payment to the Imperial Government of £100,000 towards the cost of the provision and maintenance of an additional cruiser to be added to the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy. The Prime Minister, in explaining the position, said that last year the New Zealand Government had voted £100,000 towards the cost of the Singapore base. That project, however, had been stopped, though it would most probably be gone on with now. In the meantime the Government had been advised by the Admiralty that it was very strongly of the opinion that it would be a proper thing for New Zealand under the circumstances to provide another light cruiser.
Road through rough country
A meeting of representatives of the City Council, Waikouaiti County Council, Otago Motor Club, New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition and the Otago Expansion League met Messrs J.D. Bruce and G.T. Murray, of the Main Highways Board, yesterday to discuss the Main North road between Dunedin and Waikouaiti. Mr Tamblyn accepted the chair and introduced Messrs Bruce and Murray and said he hoped the two gentlemen had come down by road, so that they would have had an opportunity of seeing it. They hoped to be able to put up a case that would receive liberal treatment with regard to portions of the road that were in bad condition and difficult to maintain. Like most main roads there had been an enormous amount of motor traffic going over this road. It was a difficult road to maintain, and it had to cater for the whole of the traffic between Christchurch and Dunedin, and more than half that went to Central Otago. It was beyond the means of the Waikouaiti County Council to maintain it. They wanted to come to some conclusion, if possible, as to what could be done to improve the road. They expected when the Exhibition came next year that the motor traffic would be much greater. Mr Linley (chairman of the Waikouaiti County Council) said the road ran through very poor country, with the result that the rates were low. The position was that the ratepayers would not sanction the council to spend money on the roads, because 87 percent of the traffic was "foreign." Cr Preston (representative of the Waikouaiti County Council on the Highways Council) said the trouble was that there was too much outside traffic using the road. It was hopeless to try and maintain the road, and as it was the council was spending £30 per mile and getting no results. The Chairman said he thought the proposal the meeting wished to place before the representatives of the Highways Board was that a portion of the road be declared a Government road. The position was an exceptional one, and he was sure they realised that. Mr Bruce said the Highways Board was anxious to assist, but he pointed out that it had no latitude. He would place the matter before the board, but he was not hopeful. The question was only one of dozens.
— ODT, 7.11.1924 (Compiled by Peter Dowden)
