BITUMEN PROVING SATISFACTORY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 14 August 1923, Page 4

BITUMEN PROVING SATISFACTORY.

During the last few weeks a paragraph concerning the use of bitumen in Hawera has been going the rounds of the papers. The paragraph, which never appeared in the Hawera Star, though other papers are crediting it to us, stated that the people of Hawera were not satisfied with bitumen because in wet weather globules of water stay on the surface and cause wet feet. This criticism of bitumen is entirely inaccurate and the Star would not have published such a statement without making proper enquiries. We have been asked about the paragraph and when it was published in the Star. The latter enquiry is easily disposed of, but the criticism of bitumen is not so easily overtaken. The facts are that bitumen is not proving unsuccessful and water does not lie upon it. in the manner stated in the erroneous paragraph. Some time ago a class of tar, which contained a considerable proportion of oil, was sent to Hawera for street purposes, and it is this tar that is causing the trouble. We have learned in a conversation with the borough engineer (Mr. Sturrock) that this supply of tar was quite unsatisfactory from an engineering point of view and no more of it will be used. Fortunately the supply of this kind of tar was only small. As" a matter fact, some of it was ■ rejected and had to be taken back. So the criticism of bitumen in the erroneous paragraph disappears. We understand that, owing to changes in the methods of preparing distilled tars, engineers elsewhere ar.e experiencing the same trouble and are going in. much more largely for bitumen, which costs about the same as refined tar and has three times the life. Hawera borough-has no hesitation in using bitumen for every suitable application of its use.