Condition of Main Highways

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 114, 8 February 1937, Page 10

Condition of Main Highways

Sir —I have just returned from a short trip:’'Wellington, Napier, Taupo, Wairakei, National Park, Wellington. During this run I passed very many miles of Public Works operations; there were meny hundreds, if not of men encamped and at work along the routes; there seemed to be any number of new graders and other machines dotted around the country (mostly at rest), and I and my overseas passengers remarked on the apparent heavy expenditure on road and surface improvements. In spite of this activity we found all roads and surfaces, apart from those bituminised, in shockingly bad order, and as a frequent traveller over these routes I have not, even in winter, known the roads in such bad condition, and this during the height of the holiday and tourist season. ... Friends report similar conditions m other parts of the North Island, and have similar experiences. . , . My general observations, although only those of a motorist, would indicate a lack of direction and attention not only to the completion of works in hand, but in the proper maintenance of works completed. Holiday traffic calls for more intensive effort on the part of the Public Works Department and county councils. The bad condition of roads indicates that no*.withstanding what must be a heavy expenditure, this attention is not being given.—l am, etc., , _ „ G. A. MILLS. Wellington, February 5.