KING COUNTRY ROADS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14926, 26 February 1912, Page 4

KING COUNTRY ROADS.

GOOD PROGRESS BEING MADE

NUMEROUS WORKS IN HAND.

fBT TELEGRAPH.—OWN' CORRESPONDENT.)

Te Kpiti, Saturday. The methods of roadmaking adopted by Mr. C. H. Williams, the resident engineer, who took charge of tho King Country district about ten years ago. are more up-to-date than those to which the settlors in the. area have been accustomed. Hitherto work has plodded along under the system of shovel, pick and wheelbarrow, with occasional divagations into more, or less expensive and result less experiments. Mr. Williams has adopted the system of doing as much as possible by machinery. TII2 road-grader is being used wherever possible. A large amount, of reading is being carried on in tho Te Kuiti district to improve the roads generally, and between 400 and 500 men are employed. The grader can make a mile or more ot road where pick and shovelwork would make only a chain, and a good example of its use is to be seen between To Kuiti and Aria: and settlers who had never dreamt, of such a happening are looking on with pleasure, while several sections of road about Aria are being prepared for the winter dairy traffic. Another very important feature of the work that is being carried on is the completion of a dray road between Te Kuiti and Mangaxoa. in the heart of the King Country, via the Waitewhena Valley, giving a complete road from Ohura to Auckland. At present, are 40 or 50 men employed on this road, and it is anticipated that in two or three months it will bo ready for vehicular traffic. On the main road* between Ongarue and Mangaroa, in the Ohura, a considerable amount of activity is being shown by the Department in pumicing and fasciningsj and the bad sections of the road between Piopio and Mahoenui are to be metalled before the winter sets in. Tho contractor for the metalling of the Wairere Hill has been let; and in the Awakino district, both in the northern and southern parts, similar progress is being made, and a large number of men are employed. The main road, from Marokopa via Kiritehere to Awakino. :s being pushed forward, and a main thoroughfare will be established from Marokopa to Awakino. g