THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1919. THE URGENCY OF ROADS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17294, 18 October 1919, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1919. THE URGENCY OF ROADS.

The need for communications is so great in New Zealand that the Minister for Public Works will for many years have a difficult task in discriminating amongst the competitive claims upon the fund he controls. Thr paramountcy of rail ways cannot be disputed, but roads are also essential, and it is obvious that very large sums must in the near future be provided under both heads. The road, like the railway, is the key to land settlement, and the sign manual of civilisation without which even the most primitive form of economic life cannot exist. Trom the time of the Romans, even from the days of Carthage, the road has been the symbol of human progress. Where roads have been good there commerce has flourished, society has been secure from the lawlessness of the frontiers, and great States have been established. To this day the road is esteemed as a source of wealth ~nd a means to ail the social joys. It is not without reason that in a province like Auckland, which is lamentably lacking in good roads, land agents lay great emphasis on the means of communication to properties they may have to sell. They know that to the farmer a metalled road means easy access to markets, and to his wife and family it means a softening of the rigours and a lessening of the isolation of country life. Unfortunately the standard of reading in the Dominion is so low that settlers have come to accept the most primitive tracks with philosophical resignation, and we are in danger of forgetting the great importance not only of r ids, but of good roads. It may be possible on a bad road to make progress by the use of strong, expensively-fed horses, or of highpowered motor transport, but it is by no means economical to wear out animals and machinery instead of metal. The bad roads of the Dominion are costing farmers every year many thousands of pounds in horseflesh and worn out vehicles. In the Auckland province alone they add an incalculable sum to the cost of production, a cost which falls heavily on producers and consumers alike. Good roads are so demonstrably an economy that difficulties of finance should not be permitted to hinder their construction. As a matter of fact, however, the great need of New Zealand is not so much to spend more on roads as to spend wisely. A large sum is frittered away annually in patchwork intended to keep indifferent roads ' passable. If this procedure were reversed, and a large outlay were devoted to laying down permanent ways, the savings in maintenance would quickly be apparent. The expenditure on public works of local bodies throughout the Dominion is over £4,000,000 a year, and of this a very considerable proportion goes on streets and roads. Unfortunately, in spite of the money sunk in roads, there are few districts which can boast of good highways. Even the roads leading to the principal cities are in several instances mere tracks over the hills- As the public learned by sad experience during the railway restrictions, Auckland is practically isolated in the winter as far as road communications are concerned. The Groat South Road quickly degenerates into a mere country track, and in the north the traveller leaves the metal even before he passes the suburban area. The principal reason for this distressing condition is, as already indicated, that the money available is being apent in repairs rather than in permanent work, but this foolish policy is not a voluntary one on the part of local bodies. Counties which control main roads are in few instances financially strong enough to carry the burden of the through traffic, even if they were disposed to do so. Their resources, as well as their inclinations, lead them to limit their roadmaking to the bare needs of ratepayers. Tha consequence is that main roads are generally little better than side roads, and there is small chance of improvement until they are given a different status. It is coming to be generally recognised that there should be some sort of co-ordinated control over the whole length of the principal thoroughfares of the country, and that the State should assume responsibility for them. Only in this manner is it likely that the strain on the finances of local bodies will be relieved and thoroughfares laid down which will cease to be the despair of those whose misfortune it is to use them. But however strongly the. claim of the main road may be pressed, the State cannot avoid its respon- ' nihility towards the backblocks I settlers, to whom a mere I track is a luxury and a clay road spells emancipation. If settlement is to progress as it should, far greater enerpry must be shown by the Public Works Department in laying down both railways and roads ' In the past, means of communication have constantly lagged behind settlement, with the result that the more adventuring of sutlers have ! spent many yf\rs b»vond l.h" n -T-h ! of railways, and sometimes of roads, j This polio.- directly discourages settlement, and is therefore inimical to the .State. The hardships inseparable from pioneering are always formidable enough. They should not be avoidably increased by the neglect of the State to provide the communications to which every settler is entitled- The aim of the Public Works Department should be t<i lead lenient, not j to follow it, sli.wiy and grudgingly. I Now that settlement is so largely I being carried' on by returned! soldiers, what was formerly sound '< economic policy has become a moral j obligation which cannot lightly be disregarded. j