MAINTAINING SCHEDULES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19700, 4 August 1938, Page 6

MAINTAINING SCHEDULES

SERVICE DRIVERS PRAISED MANY OTHERS DELAYED ABNORMAL CONDITIONS Attention was drawn to-day to the fine record being established by 3 the service car drivers on the routes leading to Gisborne when conditions were such that private car owners were seriously delayed on the roads on account of the prevailing conditions. Two motorists referred to the fact and spoke in glowing terms of the men who maintained their schedules when everything was against them. One of the drivers had been travelling between Auckland and Gisborne and took 29J hours for a trip that normally would have taken him 11 hours. Most of the extra time was spent on the journey between Opotiki and Gisborne and the delay at Otoko had been a long one. Another driver left Napier at 4 p.m. and did not arrive at liis destination in Gisborne until 6.30 a.m. the following day, a trip of 14J hours that would have been completed in six hours if the road conditions had been normal. All in the Day’s Work The roads were rough and in some places slippery and passing through and round the toes of slips was hazardous. The drivers of the service cars, however, took it all in the day s work and their skill and knowledge of the roads made it possible for t!fem to run to schedule when the other users of the roads were seriously delayed. When an inquiry was made this morning at a booking office it „was learned that none of the cars had been more than half an hour or an hour late in their recent service runs. A tribute was paid also to the fine work that was being carried out by the surfacemen working on the main highways and the efforts they were making to have the roads opened up once more. The conditions under which they worked were by no means pleasant, but they were always willing to assist an embarrassed motorist who was in difficulties. Reporting on the condition of the Gisborne-Opotiki highway, the resident A.A. patrol, Mr. D. C. Cummings, said that it would be possibly a week before all the debris was cleared from the Otoko Hill section of the road. There was still a quantity of material to come down from the hillside and it was coming away gradually. The cracks in the road surface were not giving any immediate trouble and it was thought that the surface would remain intact if there was no more heavy raiu affected parts of the retla were near the edges. State of Main Routes The summary of y road conditions is as follows: Gisborne-Opotiki, via Waloeka. Passable, but not recommended to inexperienced drivers or drivers operating small cars; not to be used at night. Gisborne-East Coast.—Open when tide is favourable; use will have to be made of the beach detour while the rain continues; debris is still coming down from the slip face.

Gisborne-Wairoa. —Both the Morere and Tiniroto routes are open, but the Morere highway is recommended. Wairoa-Napier-—Passable; greasy and rough in sections.