The Opunake Times FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19th 1923. TARRED ROADS.

Opunake Times, Volume LVV, Issue 3675, 19 October 1923, Page 2

The Opunake Times

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19th 1923. TARRED ROADS.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance. For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

The extent to which coal tar is used in road work is difficult to realise, says a writer in "Engineering." It iis true that in travelling about the [ country one cannot help being struck |by the amount of tarred or tarmacadam roads now in service, but the fact conveys only a vague idea of quantity to the ordinary individual. The effect of this comparatively recent development is much more graphically brought home by the fact thai the demand for road tar has become so great that the price has risen to a degree which has put the greater part of the briquetting trade in South Wales out of action. This industry which could be profitably run when tar was of moderate price, and which absorbed a class of fuel formerly practically waste, is now threatened with extinction owing to the demand for tar for road making. An effort is on foot to have the price of tar officially controlled in order that the industry may be kept going. It would require an uncommonly astute economist to decide which of the two uses to which the tar is put is the more valuable to the country as a whole, and whether artificial regulation would really be justified. Its use on roads probably is of service to the greater number, A pamphlet recently issued by the Ministry of Transport cannot fail to be of assistance to many surveyors and others whose experience in the matter has not been very wide. It grr.es practical directions on both .tarring water bound roads and on itfce use of tar-macadam, detailing the best mode of preparing the road, in addition to laying and finishing. The specifications for qualities of tar suitable to these two uses are also to be welcomed, as to many road officials the characteristics of tar, which are of importance in such work, are none too clear. In fact we question whether they have finally been determined, although experience has shown by now what type of specification will ensure the purchase of a suitable tar.