PUBLIC HIGHWAYS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18019, 18 February 1922, Page 1 (Supplement)

PUBLIC HIGHWAYS.

THE CIVILISING ROAD. BT MATANOA. Communications are of Hie essence of civilisation.' Solitudo is the negation of human culture. The hermit is an enemy of his kind, and the pillar-saint at heart a sinner—just because he is a pillarsaint. St. Simeon Stylitos, feeling death approach, might well confess to the multitude whom he had kept at a distance :

0. my sons, my sons. 1, bimeon of the Pillar, by surname ojJ'iten, amonc men; I, Simeon, the watcher en tho column till the end; 1, Simeon, whose brain the sunshine bakes, i, whose bald brows in silent hours Income Innaturally hoar with rime, do now e rem my high neet of penaucs hero proclaim That Pontius and Iscariot by my sideohow'd like fair seraphs.

His aloofness was but his way of joining the common herd of malefactors; his loftiness was his degradation. By a law written in his very nature, man is commanded to mingle with his fellows. Breach of that law brings tho capital penalty-loss of all that constitutes human life.

A large part of the business of organised society is concerned with the keeping open and the extension of means of communication. If they deteriorate, human life decay?. As they multiply and improve humanity aspires. Roads, railways, tramways, airways, ships, postal systems, telegraph facilities, telephone conveniences, newspapers, and all such contrivances, are the blood-vessels and nerves of the body politic, and on their efficiency as channels of thought, as well as physical means of conveyance, depends the life of the community and the well-being of the individual members of society.

Of them, the road and the ship are old, and they together furnish a gauge by which to judge the civilisation of many centuries. Island and littoral peoples without seagoing craft have been lower in the scale of life than such peoples skilled in the making and managing of these- means of communication. As for roads, they have been an index to civilisation. Where no open road is, there oarbarism still abides. Perching in castles on the top of steep 'heights, huddling in walled cities and spending their strength in keeping their fastness secure, men have proclaimed themselves as savage rather than cultured. The drawbridge and portcullis and the sleepless sentinel are the badges of a primitive state, whereas the well-trodden 'highway and the open gate betoken human advance in every sense. McAdarn is a greater than Adam. Roads Ancient, and Modern. The hundred gates of Thebes tell their story of a splendid ago. So. too, do the roads that here and there throughout the Qld! World still bear witness to Roman skill in days long before our engineers found vocation. The Appian Way, stretching from Rome to Bnindusium its four hundred miles of hexagonal blocks of stone set in cement, was built 300 years before the Christian era, in the sturdy days of Roman life. As the empire grew in power and influence, one might have stood in the Forum at the junction of roads coming in from north, south, east and west, and seen travellers pouring in and out on all routes. From Antioch, a traveller then could set out for Rome and go on from the imperial city as far as Scotland, traversing nearly 4000 miles of well-built road, with breaks in it only for the passage of the Hellespont and the English Channel. It is authentically recorded that one Caesarius went from Antioch to Constantinople. 665 miles, in less than six days. Although these Roman roads were constructed rather as bonds of conquest than for the spread of culture, they became ducts of commerce, and assisted materially in the civilisation of the peoples through whose dwellingplaces they passed. A marked feature of our own age is concern about highways—upon the sea, across stretching prairies and deserts by way of the steel road, and even through the air, The great canals that link broad ocean spaces, tne extension of shipping routes, the building of railroads tffat traverse arid wastes to link up fertile and populous areas, ijid the perfecting of air travel, alike bear witness to this activity. At first sight this may seem mere material and commercial gain. It is much more, as that poet saw who quaintly sang of his travels—

Out of my country and myself I go. By the way of the open road, whether on land or v sea or in the air, there comes what Walt Whitman called "the efflux of the sonl." We may not be such " forth-steppers " and " journeyers" as he nor take with him " afoot and lighthearted " the open road, but we know nevertheless that without good avenues of approach to each other life "will become small and mean. " Evil Communications." Yet when it comes' to putting our creed into practice, some of us fail a little. We let our city streets fall into disrepair ; we fear to (rive a vote to sanction expenditure on highways that cry aloud for improvement. We have let slip golden years of opportunity to complete fruitful lines of railway, and allowed our suburbs and our cities to languish for lark of easy access. There lie about our own city, not far away, exquisite beauties of hill and forest and shore :in effect, they might bo in Timbuctoo, so inaccessible are thev to all but the well-to-do. We hesitate" to undertake responsibility for arterial avenues of road traffic, for waterways that would economise time and energy in transit, and for bold bridging projects. Tunnels that should have been pierced with speed have eaten away all too slowly distances made by intervening hills; and when they have been completed, their traversing has been rendered positively painful and dangerous by reason of vilely dirty methods of traction. With all our "interest in travel, we have not hurt ourselves in endeavours to make it easv. We'may learn much from other countries, as well as from other ages of roadconstruction. Bold policies of reading are attracting practical attention in America, for instance. There is to be completed this year, by the co-operation ot the various local bodies concerned, r. splendid traffic road on the Pacific Coast. It? base and surface, although not uniformly constructed along the whole length, are laid down with a view to comfortable motoring; and, when its various portions are completed it will be possible to tonr over an ideally smooth surface from far north of Vancouver right into Mexico. . Such an achievement, so typical ot tne spirit of the age, is nevertheless in advance of what is being attempted in some other parts of the world. Ite easeful travelling, at all events, is unknown in \ T ew Zealand. Here, in contrast, we are still content with surfaces that are I „o better than many roads had generai tions ago. Our policy of road construction has long been a tiling of shreds and pabches-cspccially patches; *nd when up-to-date engineers, having won the approval of local bodies for a better method, have their projects submitted to the financial judgment -f ratepayers, they have often had the chagrin of seeing those projects vetoed by the opposition of a small section of the community or the apathv of the indifferent majority. Perhaps", after all, it is lack of knowledge as much as lack of interest that obstructs improvement. A campaign of education, including definite information concerning road improvements in other countries, might shake, public anathy as now our highways shake the public—and to better purpose.