Northland Roads 30 Years Ago

Northern Advocate, 1 April 1937, Page 2

Northland Roads 30 Years Ago

South Island Visitor’s Opinions

Today many complaints are made about the state of Northland’s roads, but it is interesting to read the opinion of a South Islander who toured the peninsula 31 years ago. He was Mr G. Witty, and on his return .to Canterbury in April, 1906. gave his impressions of the North.

‘‘The South Islander,” he says “has no conception unless he saw for himself the condition of the roads North of Auckland. Though my visit was made in summer time, when the roads are admittedly at their best, anyone could see' with half an eye that they must be next to- impassable in winter. If Canterbury Road Boards had such roads under 'their control there would be an immediate demand that members of the boards should be sent to gaol.

Only Bridle Tracks.

Many of the so-called roads are only bridle tracks, and poor ones at that. The coach roads are very narrow, with only room for one vehicle at a time in many places. In winter time some of them are not useable at all, except for horse traffic. In several places that I visited stores had to be carted in summer time for winter use, or else packed in during the winter

months on pack horses. Little or no metal is to be obtained, and what there is had to be carted for miles. The very worst places on the roads are covered with tea-tree or manuka scrub, or corduroyed with logs over which the passengers are bumped in such an emphatic manner as to suggest that at the end of their journey they will require new internal fittings. Water Tables In MMdle Of Roads The water-tables are generally in the middle of the tracks, or zig-zagged from side to side as they are worn by the storm water in its attempt to reach the lowest places. These channels are sometimes a foot or fifteen inches deep, and horses and vehicles have to find their way over them as best they can. “On the flat portion of the road the centres are generally concave, caused by horses moving the light soil to both sides. But little attempt has been made to remedy these defects. A few larger rocks met with casually have been removed, but most of them have been left to stick out in roads often a foot or more above the surface. Many of them would not go through a two-foot gauge.”