OUR MUDDY THOROUGHFARES

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 160, 8 July 1899, Page 4

OUR MUDDY THOROUGHFARES

Of all the proposed city improvements there is none that.during the winter season at least appeals more persistently for consideration, than the paving of Queen street. During the present week, for instance, its condition has been disgraceful beyond words; and we are sure that even the most parsimonious ratepayer who is compelled to traverse its muddy breadth would gladly take on himself the burden of additional

taxation, were that' necessary, which it is not, to put our thoroughfare in proper orders We wouM'not say that this work is of more 'importance than the augmentation of our water supply, the extension of our drainage system, or the additions to our fire brigade service; but it is certain that as compared with these other improvements that work is calculated to add more appreciably to the comfort of citizens and the amenities of the city, both in our own eyes and those ot visitors. The £12,646 which it is proposed shall be spent in blocking Queen street is a very small sum when contrasted with the perennial advantage it will bring. Under the present system of road-making it is quite plain that we can never expect to get a good road in wet weather. Certainly the methods we have pursued are not the best. We have heard a great deal of outcry on this score, but much of the adverse criticism has come from those who are not aware of the cost of constructing and maintaining a first-class macadamised road that would stand the traffic to which Queen street is subjected. In the case of that thoroughfare there has been no attempt at road-making as it is carried out in the Old Country and on the Continent of Europe. We have never proceeded on thorough scientific lines in the making of our streets, dhiefiv, no doubt, because we were debarred by the initial expense, and the same" would-be economic policy controlled the maintenance of our thoroughfares. Of course, in the latter case there was much more reason for it. for it would have been useless to have gone to much expense in .endeavouring, to keep up a roadway that had never been properly formed. Considering that we have plenty of very fair road-making material here, it would probably have been cheapest in the long run if at first we had made a first-class macadamised roadway in Queen street, for the constant tinkering of the thoroughfare must have cost a great deal of money during past years; but now, in view of the rapidiy increasing traffic, the proper pavement to adopt is undoubtedly a wooden one, which can easily be kept in repair, and both in summer and winter wall present a clean surface. When its present reproach has been removed from Queen street the con- '. trast it.will present to the other chief j thoroughfare of the city,, Customs ' street, will undoubtedly raise a cry for j improvement there. Customs street is destined to be one of our busiest avenues of traffic, and already the j sloppy condition it gets into in wet weather is a matter for protest. To convert it into a clean and satisfactory street is not such.an easy matter, owing to its flatness, and it is worth consideration whether it would not be well to have it blocked as well | as Queen street. If that, however, j cannot be done just yet, it should be easy to effect a great improvement i on its present condition. i

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