CORRESPONDENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 25, 31 January 1933, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE

THE MAIN HIGHWAYS

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Having completed a motor trip of some 1680 miles of main highways up the East Coast, Bay of Plenty, Auckland, and down the centre of the North Island, one cannot help, noticing that our main highways are showing evidence of want of maintenance. Through to Napier the roads are good. From Napier to Gisborne the roads are. dangerous .to strangers because, owing to want of proper stormwater drains to deal adequately with surplus water, and to travelling stock, the outer edges of the roads, through the hilly portion of ..this country, are so worn away and - undermined* that the_ ; original width of 22 feet has dwindled down so that two-way traffic becomes impossible in many places, especially when one meets the big two-decker v sheep lorries which tear along all parts of the -road. These roads aie unprotected by fencing; and only in one place did I notice fencing, and that was in the gorges on either side of the "Waikari Hotel. ■ Just why this area was selected and not the more notorious Devil's Elbow, where one could roll 1000 feet before stopping-, I cannot say. . -'.;•..■ The Eotorua main highway should have been tar sealed years ago, and what is very' noticeable on the. plains of the Bay p£ Plenty and Matamata are the corrugations in the ■ road surface. To travel 13 miles between Matamata a.nd Te Aroha took two hours because the vibrations of the car were such that she would jump off the Toad. The metalled portions of the Great J^outh road before you reach' the concrete road of Auckland is not a credit to the Main Highways Board. It is past all description for roughness. Between Te Kuiti and Taumarunui are two stretches of some four miles each of pumice, roads, and you strike another similar length before reaching the National Park. This is. on the main highway, not side .roads. One cannot complain of the original engineering of the main highways except the -Devil's Elbow, outside of Napier, but it is the want of proper, maintenance that is the trouble. The roads in ljilly country are becoming dangerous for two-way traffic owing to want of proper attention to the outer'edge of, ■the roads and to lack of fencing to allow one to go close to the outer edge to allow for passing lorries. The sign, posting and hotel accommodation are excellent. The courtesy of the sers vice ear drivers is simply splendid, but the Government will have to take the lorry drivers in hand as soon* as possible. There is no doubt-that in sis months of the next winter portions of our main will be out of repair and in some hilly 'districts unsafe for the' traffic using them, and it is up to members of Parliament to take the matter in hand before it is too late. "We about Wellington haVe the best and safest Toads to be found in New Zealand.—l am, etc., . MOTORIST.