KEEPING THE HILL ROAD OPEN

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 58, 5 September 1940, Page 10

KEEPING THE HILL ROAD OPEN

(To the Editor.)

Sir—My attention has been drawn to Councillor Appleton's statement regarding the maintenance cost of the Paekakariki Hill Road as a secondary highway, wherein he stated that he had more experience of road maintenance costs than myself, who the speaker he referred to at a recent conference of the Automobile Association (Wellington) and local bodies in connection with this road being kept open for traffic. I make no claims whatever to any technical knowledge on the subject, and I doubt whether Councillor Appleton could do so either. I merely corrected Councillor Appleton's statement made at a council meeting when he said it would cost £6000 to maintain the road, but I find that at a subsequent council meeting he has evidently revised this estimate down to a cost of from £2000 to £3000 a year. There is obviously a very big discrepancy between these figures. It would therefore appear that Councillor Appleton has either been misinformed or has not availed himself of more accurate information before giving expression to his personal views. As a matter of fact, the chairman of the Hutt County Council, in whose county the road is situated, has made a definite statement that the approximate cost of maintaining this road as a secondary highway (and, incidentally, it has never been suggested that it should be kept open as a State highway), is about £1000 per annum, and, presumably, he would not make that