Page:Ashburton•Scotter•1972.pdf/78

were named ‘Acton’ and ‘Mount Hutt’, the latter after the run belonging to H. P. Murray Aynsley who, as member for Lyttelton, supported Wason in presenting the petition. The new boards were elected but met only to register their objections to the change.

At the same time, Wason introduced a bill into the House of Representatives to provide for a fair distribution of the funds of the suspended South Rakaia Board. Of the £25,588 this body had spent since separation from Ashburton, no more than £1151 had gone to roading east of the railway line. Shortly before this time, however, large numbers of farmers had settled on the former Acton run so that the roading requirements of the area were now far greater than those of the upper plains. A debate, unusual on the first reading of a bill, revealed that road boards, especially in Canterbury, felt themselves under attack. They were uncertain of their future and apprehensive that this first road board decision by the government since the abolition of the provinces represented a policy which ‘would jeopardize the existence of all the Road Boards. . . .’^[1] J. Evans Brown of Ashley immediately brought forward South Rakaia Board Bill No. 2 which aimed at cancelling the proclamation of the two districts. Both bills received lengthy attention during the second readings, with the result, as a sarcastic Auckland member declared, that ‘a small and unknown portion of the country had suddenly become famous’.^[2] Both bills were withdrawn and the proclamation of the two districts was cancelled. The re-constituted South Rakaia Board met on 21 February 1878, only to divide the district again in the following year, although along a different line. No part of Ashburton County has ever received more attention in Parliament.

In 1875, the Ashburton road district was also divided for a second time, the railway line forming the boundary between the new Upper and Lower Ashburton road districts. In September 1877, the country west of the upper Rangitata River, and bounded by the Forest Stream, the Two Thumb Range and the Clyde and Rangitata rivers was detached from the Mount Peel road district and joined to Mount Somers. This alteration was made because transport into this area, forming the famous Mesopotamia Station, was by way of the Ashburton gorge and crossings over the upper Rangitata. As a result of this adjustment, Mesopotamia became part of Ashburton county, and remained joined to it until 1963, long after the direct access road was made from Mount Peel homestead.