Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 1924 GOOD ROADS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16495, 30 July 1924, Page 6

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 1924 GOOD ROADS.

ll is surely lime tL«it the attitude of peaceful resignation with regard to the roads' of this district should be' cast aside and be substituted by a policy of action. Tlio establishment of a Highways Board, eager to get- to work and backed by a liberal measure of Government finance., makes the moment exceedingly propitious for the forward movement which the Cook County Council has decided upon. The pity is that the loan proposals promoted so ably by the chairman of that body last year were not accepted by the ratepayers, who were advised, very injudiciously we think, to “wait and see” what the Government, highways policy was going to be. A full year has been iost—a. year that could profitably have been spent in work more or -less preparatory for the major scheme that the Council, \ with the Highways Beard's support and assistance; is now abie to undertake. It is no credit to the district that the Council should drift'on year after year with, a poor maintenance- policy of patching and mending, absorbing all the rates it is possible to gather and having very little to show for the money expended at the end of a wet season, ft is an intolerable 'disgrace that the main highway connecting Gisborne with the several townships and rich and fertile coastal territory to the north should b e in tlio state it is to-day, when between Gisborne and Tolaga travellers have to spend from eight to ten hours in a weary drag through inud, axle deep, over’a rend which if metalled could he traversed hv motor in a. couple of hours. The conditions which travellers are required to endure on the, ( cast road are absolutely intolerable —mile after mile of boggy road through which the. coaches, witJi straining horses, crawl at a snail’s pace; passengers frequently having to get out and walk or to push. Such conditions might have- been inevitable thirty or forty years ago when settlement was sparse, the number of travellers few, and tlie rateable, value of property comparatively small; but to-day with a rapidly swelling volume of trattie, with great rich districts and flourishing townships in the northern counties, it is imperative that the communications should ho free and open all the year round. So also with many other of our hack country roads. The conditions that were acquiesced in even ten or twenty years ago ate now altogether inexcusable. It is to every man’s interest to have good roads —not merely to the town trader who wants to see the country farmer Come to town as- frequently ns possible, hilt to tlie farmer himself. Good roads add value to a property. Good roads give an enormous, incalculable, economic and social advantage to the dwellers in country districts. In America there is no stronger ddvooate of good roads

movements than the farmer, for, under existing conditions, lie is more handicapped by the lack of them than is any otner member of the community. Ido is unable without them to get his goods to market cheaply and expeditiously, and he and his family are kept tied to their homesteads for many long and dreary months of tile year. It must he recognised that a complete change is coming over transport conditions in all countries through toe advent of the motor venicte. Though New Zealand has a. fair proportion per head of population of motor cars, it has not yet realised what is possible: by means of motor traction. In the United States last year no less than 370,CC0 motor trucks were manufactured, of which only 10 per cent, were exported. The extent to which motor trucks are used in the United States can perhaps be better appreciated from the met that in 1923 the total number registered there was 1,620,000. Almost every day one hears of some new development ill which the motor truck is playing the. title role. Even the railway companies of America have begun to adjust themselves to the new conditions, and such an enterprising concern as the Pennsylvania Railroad System has recently replaced two daily trains between Wilmington and Philadelphia with motor 1 melts, this being the most important of a. number of operations of this system covering 204 miles of truck service daily. Practical railroad men in America believe that motor trucks as carriers are most economically efficient up to distances not exceeding 70 to 75 nines, and they are encouraging the use of thicks on short hauls, as feeders to the railways. Hence the enormous demand in America, for good roads, and the wonderful rapidity with which they are being constructed. Can New Zealand afford to negiect this world-wide revolution in transportation? For many years' roadmaking in this -district has been conducted on a more Or less haphazard system. The funds available from year to year have 'been scant, and we fear that the engineers in endeavoring to make the money “spread out” to the apparent best advantage have not been able to choose such routes and gradients or to lay such good foundations ns were necessary for the construction of permanent high ways. t The root of the whole matter in road building is foundation, for,the obtainment of which the conditions of the soil, whether of clay, sand, or bog, and the vital question of sub-soil drainage must be carefully studied. Unless there is good drainage good foundations cannot be secured, as tne water lying underneath will in time cause the foundations to move, and thus the road suriace will crack. “More than twenty years ago,” writes an Australian road engineer, "I made a. special study of tne French national roads, winch were probably 't,lie best in the world at. that time'. This was ol course, tietore tne days' ot concrete roads, or even, to any extent, of tarred macadam. These French roads were made of water-botind macadam, and although there were thousands of miles of such, roads, bearing the heaviest traffic of the nation, yet the average total thickness v oi metal was a little over live 1 inches. Every foot of road, however, was carefully sub-soil drained, so that there was no standing water underneath. There was sufficient crown on the surface of the roads, too, to enable the water to run off and getaway quickly. Another very important factor making for the excellence of these roads, was the system of upkeep. ‘A patch in time saves nine,’ was the French motto, and this , was rigidly adhered to in practice, ny the employment of surface men whose duties were to keep the' roads in repair. Each man was responsible, for a certain section of a road, and from the first- of January to the 31st of December in each year; he-did nothing else but. keep I hat. piece of road in 'repair. After rain, if a little patch of wear developed, this was ‘picked up,’ and new metal added and lamped into position.” Unfortunately in this district our local bodies have never felt that they could afford to employ the labor requisite to such close and careful maintenance of road surfaces. Moreover, with the metal available, it'was not possible to prevent rapid erosion .and decadence of the reads The prime necessity now seems to be to .waterproof the surfaces, thereby preventing decadence of roads and lessening enormously the expense of upkeep. “It is not the cost, it’s the upkeep,” is a wise saw concerning road construction, emanating from America. Upkeep is a question involving far more serious consideration than the first cost. “It is impossible in. the nature ot tilings,’ says the Roadmakeih a technical journal, “to put all the roads, or even all .the main roads, of a> country on a sound basis at once. But wherever a new road is constructed the ratepayers should see to it that it is fiffccon'structed that it will not be an ever-recurring charge. Better a half-crown rate this year and next than an eighteen penny rate fqr all, eternity. A job well done to-day will not require tinkering next year and doing all over again a, few years later. Once the principle has been generally adopted that a. new road must be so foiindationed, laid, and surfaced that it can stand up . to its work without continual repairing the necessary start will have been made.. Each road that can stand on its own feet will set available funds free to put other roads in. the same happy state; and this Js a cumulative process. If the situation 1 is tacjtled .boldly, the roads can be established on a sound basis in a surprisingly short number of years.” With the ever-increasing growth of motor traction, it is imperative that the roads should be taken in hand and fortified, to resist the wear and tear cf traffic. Money so expended will be well spent and save an enormous drain on the counties’ resources. It is good sound bUusiness proposition to put the roads in order as permanent, highways, and the ratepayers will, we are sure, see it in that light, and arm the Conk County Council with the-necessary .authority to go ahead with the thoroughly progressive, and reasonable proposals shortly to he submitted.