Machines Working Hard To Repair Roads

Northern Advocate, 22 February 1939, Page 4

Machines Working Hard To Repair Roads

(From Our Special Reporter). AWANUI, Tliis Day. Machines are working every minute of daylight to fill the gap created by lack of vision, or, to use other words, compound stupidity in ignoring the fact that the motor car has brought new reading commitments, said Hon. R. Semple, when dealing with a Whangaroa County deputation regarding the steadily increasing cost of road maintenance today. One of the main reasons for the increased cost, Mr. Semple said, was the high speed car confined to ruts on the narrow roads. Tyre suction was causing the roads to blow away in dust. Failure to recognise the inevitable coping with a power driven age had resulted in a lag which was entailing a tremendous expenditure. Without I modern machinery, it would have been impossible to batch up in a generation, and that was Why he had changed construction methods, Mr. Semple said. “We have 2335 jobs in operation,” the Minister continued, “24.000 men working and £1,000.000 of modern machines in operation. Notwithstanding that we have demands from North Cape to the Bluff which we cannot touch.

Some counties are too hide-bounc| and stupid to take advantage of the five year plan, others, like yourselves, are too poor to contribute to a progressive scheme of reading. Taxable capacity here has reached its maximum* the problem being accentuated in the north more than anywhere else, by the non-payment of native rates. ' Wc will see that you get your legitimate share and you can. be sure that no money will be spent on oldfashioned systems, and that the jobs will be carried out automatically and systematically.

(t may have been all right to allow counties to struggle on as best they could, but it is necessary to keep pace with the revolutionary changes in transport. 1 Now we are limited in permanent surfacing to State Highways, but I am now contemplating amendment of the law to enable us to assist counties to pave roads.