, 1884-12-20

VIC dCo 0uO 0AOaANA 10 ~ va NAoSASs
motives or reasons he did not mean to say
that this had been lone now. but he would
say that q radical change has now been
made i'm the system hitherto followed in
assessing road work. In the Quarter men,
toned the work has been taken from the
fine South Side Estates and mostly placed
on the poorer North Side Estates; and
formerly, the assessment was in the pro.
portion of 2 feet to l, now it is in the
proportion 5 feet to J, on certain parts Of
the roads. Another place where there is
plainly a grievance is the road by Wheel
of Fortune and Concordia Estates to Ere.
deriksted, which has now been made q
by road, while the most traffic to and from
Westend all the year round from almost
all parts of the Island is on this road, but
the other road to Westend by Stony
Ground is used only in crop time, hardly
& months of the year, and for nothing else
but for carting produce. He could see
no just reason why 5000 feet on these
roads should be made equal to 1000 feet on
the main road; this appeared to be a great
injustice, and he was surprised that
Government would sanction it. When
comparing the allotments for North Side
Estates it seemed also a hard case that
some estates holding the same acreage and
same cane cultivation have been allotted
doubly as much work as others more than
that, small estates have been allotted more
than larger ones. Orange Grove has
1870 feet of Road work on a Main Road,
as much as Mt. Victory, Nicholas, and
Pleasant Valley put together, although
Orange Grove is not half the size OF the
value of the other concerns; Beck's Grove
has 1926 feet, or doubly as much as Mt.
Victory etc. When further it is remem-
bered that these hard working North Side
EStatnS my the sauna taYpS Az Otllar
estates, even where they produce half IL
hogshead an acre against 2 hogsheadS pro.
duced on other estates per acre, and at the
same time they are dOublY taxed in Road
work, it is evident that there is something
radically wrong if such u state Of things
can exist. Another matter to notice is
that it is a hard case to tax those North
Side Estates for the Centre Line Road
repairs, when those Estates never make use
of that road, except on the few occasions
where an individual party drives u phaeton
on it. The surplus of road work on the
Quarter should have been allotted on West
End Quarter. Well now, as the Road Re
pairs have not been legally assessed, not III
accordance with the Road Ordinance, he
would, as he believes that estates aggriev.
ed by this allotment have the right to
claim it. suggest that the Government
would use its authority and cause a new
alIO ment next year TO De made more ia
accordance with what has been the case
heretofore.
The Ficeqouernor said: The honorable 2nd
Member for FrcderikSted's Country District
IHeUittI has asked for information why the
enactlnents in s IL of the Road Ordinance
have not been obeyed, in as much as the
assignment has not, at least as far as West
End and Princes Quarters are concerned,
been made by the Road Commissioners in
conjunction with the Road Inspectors.
To that question he (the Vicegovernor)
would give the frank answer, that the
omission is due to an error on the part of
the Board, but an error which is pardon.
able under the circumstances the Road
Ordinance is namely d new concern, and
il must of course take SOM time for all the
parties to become thoroughly acquainted
with all the enacClnents for the assignment
of the road-work. This, then, can explain
the omission. But it is also to be expected
hat the public, or the planter prOprie tors,
will show their loyalty and patriotism by
overlooking small defects in the direction
to which allusion has been made. It's
very possible that the honorable Member
fHewitt1 is correct in some OF his remarks
concerning the Road allotment i'll his Quart
er. although some of those remarks were
framed in rather strong expressions. In his
theVicegovernor's) opinion it is rather much
to make 5 feet Of road Ola the road by Con-
cordia to Westend equal with 1 foot on the
Main Road. and it would be desirable that
the Board at the next rOad-allOtment
L. L~l ,N s4,1k 1~A