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how quick small farmers were to resent management of their affairs by wealthier farmers or pastoralists.

Any account of road board history, however brief, must appear incomplete without some details of road making. The spreading and harrowing of shingle produced a surface which vehicles and horses generally avoided—if the sides were usable—until the crown began to harden after a few years. By the end of the century the South Rakaia Board was considering the use of a traction engine to hasten the process. Later, the Rangitata Board proposed that the County Council should buy a steam roller and hire it to boards. The council agreed to the proposal but boards would not promise sufficient use to justify the purchase. However, in 1902, the Upper Ashburton Board introduced a grader—‘the American road grading machine’. This was a step forward. Water tables at least were better and fewer roads were flooded.

One further defect of administration by these boards was their neglect of roads which were of general importance yet were little used by their own ratepayers. For example, until 1891, traffic used a track on the east side of the railway from Tinwald to Hinds whereas the official roadline, until Wright had the matter rectified, lay on the west. Clearly neither road had received any attention. Later the responsibility for the maintenance of this main thoroughfare was the subject of a dispute between the Longbeach and Upper Ashburton boards. Similarly, an important access road was made up the Rakaia Gorge from Blackford to Redcliff, not by the Mount Hutt Board but by the County Council with the aid of a government grant.

All the boards met monthly and most of their meetings were reported in the local and Christchurch newspapers. Their proceedings, though dull, were of general interest. The number of disputes which arose out of their decisions—of which some examples have been given—is sufficient evidence of their importance.

On 1 August 1878 Ashburton became a borough. The town consisted of some fifty places of business and at least 200 dwellings. Most of the shops and offices clustered in groups along or near three-quarters of a mile of East Street facing the railway line. With few exceptions they were small and cheaply made; but the exceptions were becoming more numerous. The Somerset Hotel, R. W.