RIMUTAKA ROAD.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19715, 4 September 1929, Page 10

RIMUTAKA ROAD.

CLEARING OF SLIPS.

UNBUSINESSLIKE METHODS ALLEGED. (rata* association t»l*obam.) MASTERTON, September 3. A number of complaints have been made of the unbusinesslike way in which slips on the Rimntaka road, ich is the only highway between Wairarapa and Wellington,- are being cleared, and also at the unnecessary holding up of traffic. A case in point is reported this afternoon. A small slip came down at the site of the original slip and blocked the road for a few hours. A traveller to Wellington arrived at the site of the slip while the road was blocked, and was told, it is stated, that he would have to proceed to Wellington via Manawatu, a detour of 120 miles, whereas the road was actually cleared about two hours later, but not by workmen employed on the job. It is alleged that when the men knocked off work at five o'clock a com paratively small quantity of debris was left on the car track. This, however, was removed by some service car drivers and passengers in a short time, and the road opened for traffic.

Considerable indignation exists among the. travelling public in Wairarapa over the reeent stoppages of traffic on this highway. It is also stated that some dangerous rock at the site of the slip, which could have been removed with facility when the original slip came down, has been left, and might probably again block the road, whereas previously it would have been an easy mattei to remove it with the aiu of the existing slip as a slide to precipitate it over the roadway into the gullv. In a period of two hours from the time the road was opened by volunteers this afternoon, a total of 2? cars, nine service cars, and two four-ton lorries, negotiated the road. The road it under Government Control,