OUR ROADS AND FOOTPATHS A SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENT.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 156, 30 December 1898, Page 5

OUR ROADS AND FOOTPATHS A SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENT.

During his recent visit to Germany, Mr. Charles Wees, senior partner in the firm of Nees and Sons, hardware merchants, of Wellington, interested himself in the matter of street paving, and he has retunfced to New Zealand convinced that the most suitable material is a kind of asphaltum, which is being laid down in Berlin and the other large cities in the Fatherland. Mr. Nees informed us that some time ago the German Emperor despatched several scientific men to Pompeii with the object of ascertaining the component parts of the material that was employed in paving the streets of that ruined city. After making full investigations and experiments they came to the conclusion that an asphalt manufactured from scoria found in the island of Sicily had been used by the ancients. The Kaiser has secured an estate in Sicily on which there are immense deposits of scoria, and large quantities of it are being taken to Berlin for paving the streets of that city. The scoria, which is somewhat friable, is easily htiwn, and the freight from Sicily to Berlin does not exceed 10s 6d per ton. Scoria equally well adapted for paying purposes has been found to exist in the Hartz Mountains, and the work of breaking out blocks of it is giving employment to an immense number of hands. The process of treating it is exceedingly simple. The stone is placed in a machine, which revolving at a tremendous speed breaks it up into fragments almost as small as oats. In making the streets and footpaths the German authorities form a concrete bed, and on it they place a coating of a tarry substance obtained by heating the scoria to 150 degrees. The tarry substance having been laid down, the granulated scoria, which has been made hot, is spread, and after a hot roller has been run over it two or three times the heaviest drays can pass over it. Mr. Nees states that the asphaltum is about half the cost of wood blocks, and will last many years longer. A street paved with it looks much better than ane covered with wood, and, in addition, it can be kept clean and sweet with little trouble. Mr. Nees is of opinion that we have in the volcanic districts in New Zealand material somewhat similar to that which is being broken up and laid down in all the principal cities in his native country,, and it is his intention to wait upon Sir James Hector at an early date with tjie object of inducing him to ascertain if the scoria in the colony can be used in the German manner. Mr. Nees has brought with him samples of the material which is being quarried in the Hartz Mountains and also pieces of pavement taken from the streets in Berlin. These he will exhibit to the City Council at its next meeting.