ROAD TO THE NORTH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18994, 16 April 1925, Page 9

ROAD TO THE NORTH.

METALLING WEAK LINKS*

HIGHWAY BOARD'S POLICY,

SUBSIDY OF FOUR TO ONE. j

Nino miles of tlio Whangarei-Kawa-kawa Road, from the southern boundary of the Bay of Islands County northward, have been declared a Government road, according to a notice in the Gazette. This section of the road is unmetaLled and its declaration as a Government road permits tho Main Highways Board to subsidise work upon it in greater proportion than the 50 per cent, named in tho Main Highways Act

Mr. M. H. Wynyard, a member of tho board, stated yesterday that il was intended lo subsidise the cost of metalling this portion of the Whangaroi-Kawakawa • Road at about £4 to £l. When completed it would give a good metalled road between Whangarei and the. Eay of Islands. There were long lengths of metalled roads in the North, but they were often broken by short stretches of clay road.

These onuiotalled portions were generally through country from which the counties could draw little revenue by rates, and without the assistance of the board they would continue lo impede, if not interrupt, through traffic. It was tho board's policy, therefore, to strengthen these weak links so as, eventually, to give' a through metalled road from Auckland to Waipapakauri, in the Far North, which, would be passable in all weathers. At the present time, said Mr. Wynyard, there was a fair road from Maungaturoto to the Far North, with fewer weak links than that southward from Maungaturoto to Auckland. It might take four or five years to fill the gaps, but the work would be steadily pursued. Another work of t his sort made possible by the board and shortly to be. put in hand was the metalling of 13 miles of the Great North lload between Wayby and Wellsford. To get a through road to the North required a perspective wider than county boundaries, and such a View th,e board was endeavouring to take.