AUCKLAND LAGGING BEHIND WITH ROADS

Manawatu Times, Volume LII, Issue 3615, 16 September 1927, Page 8

AUCKLAND LAGGING BEHIND WITH ROADS

SOUTHERN MUCH BETTER. [“Times” Special.] AUCKLAND, Last Night. The Auckland province, is lagging uehiud in reading work, and the superiority of the highway systems ot I Wellington, Taranaki and Hawke’s Bay is so marked that the travelling motorist needs no boundary posts to inform him ho has entered tho niost northern Province. Opportunity to observe this signal distinction in maintenance methods was. taken on the occasion of a tour of 1750 miles completed by a service officer of the Auckland Automobile Association. The trip embraced a circuit of the cast and wesj- coasts, the outward journey being made through Napier to Wellington and the return via New Plymouth. The worst section of tho highway encountered was the notorious portion of the Great South Road at Huntly. Taranaki has its network of tarsealed roads. Hawke’s Bay pins Us faith to common macadam maintained on the stick-in-time principle, while Wellington has both bitumen and macadam kept at a standard which would confound Counties further north Throughout the three Southern Provinces there is evidence of great supervision Loose metal is never hurled haphazardly, on the roads to b e rolled in by the traffic. Graders and surfacemen are encountered every few miles on any vital metal road and in parts of Hawke’s Bay and Wellington there ar e common macadam roads which present a surface little inferior to that of concrete. So complete is the reading system In many of thes e districts that attention is now being given to "painting the lily” on what appear to bo idea) reads. Corners are being cut back to increase visibility. Almost trivial grades are being eased and in parts of the three Provinces deviations are being found where there is thc slightest suggestion of benefit. Looking at all this fancy work the Auckland motorist thinks how contented we would be to have similar reads even without the frills.