THE VOLCANIC HILLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15659, 13 July 1914, Page 4

THE VOLCANIC HILLS.

Sir,—Lovers of the beautiful and ornamental have been seized with a strong desire to divert our scoria hills from a useful to an ornamental purpose. These hills, 1 understand, were reserved and set apart by the founders of the colony for the sole purpose of providing the country with road material, and for this purpose they have been very useful. I am told there is no suitable material for railway ballast and road-making nearer the railway north of Auckland than 60 miles, and practical!' that scoria from these hills is a necessity to the mads of the district. I am sure it is a necessity for the roads around the mount nt the present time. In planning a c«il"iiv its founders have first to provide for the necessary: secondly, the convenient, and lastly, the ornamental. These people seem to think we arc provided with all that is needful and useful, and that our whole energies should be devoted to luxury. They never think of the struggling settler wading through muddy roads. I would ask these people whether, if they were stuck in the mud in an apology for a road, they could enjoy a view of the mount, or whether they would be seized with a strong desire to trample it under foot, where, of course, it ought to have been, John Johnson. Mount Albert.