ROAD TO THE NORTH.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 108, 10 May 1927, Page 10

ROAD TO THE NORTH.

THE DEVONPORT OUTLET.

SILVXRDALE OFFER REJECTED

APPEAL TO THE PREMIER

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SILVERDALE, Monday.

A meeting of the East Coast Road Metalling Committee was held to consider the replies of the authorities to the offer of 20 Silverdale farmers to give free labour on the main motor road between Devonport and Silverdale.

Outlining the position, the chairman said it was realised that the development of Silverdale and the north generally was bound up with traffic within Takapuna and Devonport, and this depended vitally on the proper maintenance of the Warkworth-Devonport road. This was the mail route to Waiwera, and the great trade route from Auckland and Devonport to the north. In order to prevent a repetition of what happened last Christmas, when over 100 cars were bogged all night in the mud only ten miles north of Takapuna, 20 Silverdale farmers offered the Minister of Highways, the Hon. K. S. Williams, their services free to metal the two and a-half mile clay gap, if he would make available Parliament's recent unconditional vote of £850 for the purpose before the winter. After nine weeks' delay, the Minister had now replied rejecting the offer, and saying it would be better to spend the money on side roads. The offer of free labour had also been extended to the County Council, at the request of the engineer, Mr. Murray, in connection with loans expenditure to metal one-third of the clay portion at Redvale. Work was to have been started a month ago, and the voluntary gang was organised and held waiting for the call. But the council had not called upon them, but had started the work with a small gang of paid men. These things lessened the length of road that could be metalled, and guaranteed the continuance of the mud gap for another winter.

The secretary said it was apparent that the boycott of this road, the Cinderella road of the north, was t» be continued. The road to Birkenhead, which was very little used, had been made a main highway, with promise of generous Government assistance, and a six-mile upused road from Dairy Flat to Wainui was to be another main highway, with £3 to £1 subsidy, on the excuse of reachipg a stone quarry there. But the road via Devonport, the great

trade route of the north, carrying ninetenths of the northern traffic, was being persistently starved and smothered by the Waitemata County Council, the Main Highways Board, and now the Minister himself. Of what use were side roads if the main trade route was a bog? And was the Minister prepared to metal them? The object of the boycott seemed to be to close up the Devonport route, and to force all traffic to use the unpopular road via Birkenhead, in order to prevent the Birkenhead portion of the main highway from being a white elephant. In the last two years the Birkenhead road, carrying only onetenth of the traffic, had received nearly ten times as much of the riding expenditure as the Devonport road. In other words, it received nearly 100 times more than its share. A speaker asked what the member of the district, the Hon. J. G. Coates, was doing in the matter? It was decided to lay the matter before Mr. Coates, and ask his assistance.