OUR ROADS AND ROAD-MAKERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5496, 28 June 1879, Page 6

OUR ROADS AND ROAD-MAKERS.

TO THE EDITOR. ; Sir, —la any system adopted here, or what ! is it tlie makers and menders of oar roads aim at? It ought to be the aim, one I would think, to make the beat possible use of the means at hand, > yet plain facts, oppose altogether any > such conclusion. I have seen fresh cuts ' out of the clay in three years worn iD to a r good, smooth, hard road, and so continued, (with less cobbling than is done here) —you ' might bowl your carriage over it as over a ' marble slab—and they had no better materials to make it with than we have; but our managers have not accomplished a good road 1 yet in all Auckland, nor yet a good path, ' (save the asphalts), though I have been • watching them fifteen years ; and it appcare to me quite impossible that there over will or can be any good roads nnder the method ' adopted. Of course, you will ask, what are these obnoxious methods? Just this : All the roads are formed to keep the water on them too long. Instead of being formed for the water to run off as quickly as posi sible. And the hills, whore the water will i run off in spite of the " road-makers," the ■ road-makers do yet contrive that the water i shall do as much damage to the road as 1 possible as it runs; for kept in, and running so far, so long, and so constantly down the • middle, or any way, except into the gutters, the ground is soon torn up by the torrent, ' and the fastening of the metal sll washed away. And so we have standing water on the flats in winter weather, and rough humps and gullies and rolling stones on the hills all the dry weather, but navor a good road at any time—not one in all Aucklaad. As soon as they get over the. roughness caused in formation, directly thoy aro followed by the roughness of their own selfdestruction. Take two of the beßt roads in Auckland, Princes-street and Shortlaudstreet. The water runs, and always has, down the middle, with all the bad results I 1 have shewn; and even if the water, by a miracle, could reach the sides of the road, it would have to go up-hill to get into the gutter. . It will be said, perhaps, that they have worn so, &c., but that is not all truo, they are formed so, as all the rest, paths and all are, every-wise. Take the Parnell Road,lately new-modelled —the same folly prevails. In parts the water would have to surmount more than one hill before it could roach the gutter ; in no part is the road in good form, and some placcs are not only fiat, but positively hollow. Same with the pain —scoria put on to be washed off the fif6t flush, Look at Constitution Hill! What a mess -it is, and always has been 1 It has been mended six or seven times since its formation ; yet I shall speak quite within compass to say if tho first labonr and materials had been properly expended, there might have been a better pafcli at this time without repairs than there is now with all the *' mending " they have done to it, and because there, as everywhere else in Auckland, they form the roads so as it shall bring on its own destruction, independent of any legitimate wear,—l am, &0., Mechanic,