By 1904 the County Councillors were installed in their new building. However the problems they grappled with remained the same; wandering stock, bridges and drains in poor condition and roads not much better.
The coach ‘Lily of the Valley’ ran a Martinborough to Featherston railway service the round trip taking four hours. Improvement to the road resulted in the larger 28 person coach ‘Pride of the Valley’, introduced in 1908, being able to complete the round trip in three hours. (The ‘Pride of the Valley’ was restored in the 1970’s and is at Greytown’s Cobblestones museum).
A zig zag road up was constructed to enable coaches or traction engines to climb to the top of Bidwill’s cutting. In slippery conditions at each turn a block was put behind a traction engine’s back wheel while it stopped to built up enough steam to climb the next section.
Stage coach drivers included H Bird, Joe Baghurst, H Ronalds and Alex Sharp. Albert Smith (my wife Elizabeth’s Grandfather) said that it was extremely cold in a southerly and passengers were numb and stiff at the end of the journey.
Amalgamation of the various Wairarapa Councils, was proposed in 1917, then again in 1921 without success.
Following the first world war there was a transport revolution with bicycles, cars, motor lorries and buses replacing horses as the means of transport. Modes which required better roads. The County worked on these and by 1938 boasted that there were ’58 miles of dust free roads’ – I.E. tar sealed. (Currently the district has 382 km of sealed roads).
The second world war brought a stop to road sealing. Work parties of Japanese prisoners from the Featherston camp worked on maintenance of the districts unsealed roads and clearing roadside drains.
With war’s end the County Council embarked on a major road sealing project which resulted in 28 miles of new seal laid at a cost of thirty thousand pounds (2012 = $2, 352,307). Average density on these roads was 35 vehicles a day.
After forty years of use the County furnishings were clearly looking rather worn. However following the spend on roading there was a call for general savings. Councillors moved and passed that the Clerk purchase new chairs for the engineers and councillors with the cost of each chair being paid by the person who would be using it.
The new County Building (now SWDC offices) was constructed in 1958. However not without opposition from ratepayers who considered it to be an extravagance.
In 1971 the County strongly pushed for an amalgamation of the three boroughs and county. While this was not taken up, in 1989, prodded by the government, the amalgamation eventually took place.
Mate Higginson
