ROAD FORMATION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 79, 23 May 1911, Page 8

ROAD FORMATION.

srtic!csm:\s. A corromondent of t!• o “News'’ ATiU's as follows regarding tins -New ■ ’lvinonth-Opuunkc Road: — Tiie condition of parts ot tin's road >, ith winter comment ing malms it do■irabla to question if the wisdom of t,io local bodies’ methods in poriqdici) 1 v dumping down great quantities of‘a soft, easily pulverised stone and unci from the nearest source is the host. An old proverb says “a stitch in time saves nine.” The Hoard evidently do not believe in it, and our read seems to be getting worse year ,y year, and, I suppose, will go on in til the milk carriers find the milk .••burned on arrival at the factory. Who damages the road d First, the carriers of Heavy loads; secondly, the '•••luted milk cart. These are the worst offenders. For some reason not apareiit, the milk must all lie in by i certain hour, although, 1 believe, they can cool and keep it for weeks if they like. The bakers and milk trade seem to have the same disease, j'iiey are up all night, hut there is no ’.ecessity for it. Let us study the formation ol a ■lit and its growth from day to day. Whore does a rut occur first? I .mould say, where the basement of the road is least. Now, wo know that, ■raids in Now Zealand are not comuencod properly with stones, say, 51b •r.ch, laid on stones 101 h each, for a 'ot of broken stone is dumped down ■»n clav. So ever after suit spots >. ill exist, and the heaviest load will ind them and leave a depression, and r.ch time a heavy load gives a shock i'co a i:• i 1 e driver the rut grows, mill it becomes big enough to break a vpring or kill a cyclist, whereas if a n ( w stones were put into it when first ( r •served it would cease to lie a rtit. : f there was something like asphalt 0 lill these ruts money might ho sav•d, or, if the road board would pay •nly for the hard variety of stone—■•veryone knows it by its look—less •epa'irs would be needed. These ■tones all seem to lie carted from '•o beds of the streams which cross he road in a very primitive fashion; ■ ikl, as these streams will no doubt •e used for years, trolley-lines and a muling engine would act much utter. Anyone watching the proms o: the coach or currier notes that •ev walk un a hill o”d trot down the slope, so nits should lie cnnally on each side, and exactly suited for all wheels to deepen. Now, if the Road Hoard decreed that heavy waggons should have wheels apart two, feet more than light traps, passenger tral* c would he rapid and tree from amps. Or, if they ordered heavy 1 a Hie to have three' wheels on each •do the roads would last twice as

,vig. Anyhow, to go on as at pres- . t is stupid in the extreme. The •caul from Hawora to Manaia is a bousand times worse olf tor metal han the New Plymouth and Opunake load, and they liave been trying to ■at a railway ' there for years. It coins hopeless ever to expect a rauaiv to the west of the Mountain, .ini tno grades arc abominable; so me feels inclined to ask as to when no Carrington Hoad through the wages is to appear? Will it avoid the and descents which remind mo of the old nursery rhyme: “J'he vino- of France with 2U,(KiO men aarcliod tip the hill and then marched town again.” See-saw horn altei .onr, line a ship in a mountainous (rood lor neither mini noi ‘aa’st. Tacii as to embankments. The joard have made such as the Taaiao Hill. The slope coming into )akur.i township affords a splendid pporluiiity for testing if fruit, such s poaches, could bo grown oi superior quality. These slopes, if faeng away from the couth, should wive all the advantages of a wall. : iicy would be secure from thieves i')Ove or below, and the matter of poodo passing would keep birds away. But traffic will be increasing year by oar. The motor company, during its mort reign, did not succeed in reducing the cost of articles carried, and it s"evidently a question for powerful steam machinery, traction engines of nculiar construction dragging half a n/.en carriages with Westinghouse •wakes. The coach speed is about six nibs per hour, and tlio goods speed ■.bout four and a half miles. If the kninty Clerk took it up, and rcluced the cost 50 per cent., the carters would give up; and the wheels »f these engines and waggons night lave two or three tyres, and so spread tie weight over a great surface ol •and. Fancy the carriers with a ton i two ud and tyros inches 'vide lave metal carriers parading the road lonstantly, putting a shovelful wherjvor a rut is beginning. Can onyoue jay that the state of the Tapuae at present is desirable? An ascent about 15 degrees and a foot deep of coarse netal, a little at a time, would have saved all this. One almost despairs if seeing the beautiful roads in limo■lone districts about Wavcrlcy, Hastings, and To Ante, that a week’s rain a ill not make the slightest difference to, and so white that on the darkest 'ight the road can lie seen. I helve it would lie far cheaper and better to get this shell limestone railed tom Wavcrlcy. There lias been a Jot of side roads metalled lately, adding to the value of property—and also to the rates. But most people are only Interested in the main road, arid the 101 l bar at Puniiio is a retrograde vet, will) value of property around Increasing at such a rate.