CONCRETE ROADS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18565, 24 November 1923, Page 13

CONCRETE ROADS.

VALUE IN UNITED STATES.

IN AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS.

Observations on the efficacy of concrete roads were made in the United States by Mr. C. Rhodes during his recent visit to the Rotary Convention, at St. Louis. The tremendous mileage of concrete roads through the agricultural!districts was one of the things that imprssed him most. These roads were not confined only to main avenues. They appeared to be regarded as generally necessary, ..and of quite as much advantage to the local dweller as to the general mass of automobile traffic. Automobile traffic was comparatively fast traffic and horses on a road were not now common. Practically all farmers used motor-cars, the " effect of which was to bring their farms within easy reach _of some market or town, incidentally raising the value pec- acre of their property. By comparison with New Zealand, farm values in the States were low, said Mr. Rhodes, but in spite' of that, they could arid did have many first-class paved roads, and the question he asked himself, was, " If it pays Americans to have such good roads, how much more advantageous would it be for New Zealanders to be equally equipped ?" To be able to make two horses do what now called for three, or maybe one instead of two. meant less capital cost for horse flesh, less horse feed, less wear and tear on plant, and for maintenance, the savings on these items alone far more than outbalancing the direct cost in rates that a good road system must involve. In the United States the country roads were subsidised by a three cents per gallon tax on,, the motor spirit used in automobiles and freight trucks. A tax on tyres was also another way to ask road users to pay for the cost of a. concrete road, and there could be no question whether it would pay a man to run over paved roads, at, say, a 5 per cent, tax on the cost of tyres. Spread over 20 years it cost just half as much to have a first-class concrete road as to have a good macadam road, to say nothing of the comfort, and benefit of the former.