The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET. AUCKLAND FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1928 CRIPPLED WHEELS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 548, 28 December 1928, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET. AUCKLAND FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1928 CRIPPLED WHEELS

IT is popularly recognised that the inscrutable forces which guide human destiny work in a mysterious way their wonders to perform. Consequently there will no doubt be some measure of deep thought among road-bound motorists whose holidays, punctuated by showers from above and imprecations here below, have become transformed into a vigil by immovable cars. If the outraged trippers feel that any purposes are to be served by the lachrymose skies, it may occur to them that one at least might be the convincing of townsmen that there are more roads than the ribbon of concrete from Auckland to Papakura, and that the conditions wdiich have ruined many holidays are those which paralyse the whole communication system of rural communities during the winter. For once in his life, at any rate, the city-dweller, who spends his year in a bungalow on a welltarred street, will realise what it means to dwell by a road that at a shower, becomes a quagmire. The many motorists reported to he held up at various outlying points will have ample time to reflect upon the idyllic processes of rural life. For the countrymen on the other hand, who are inured to these hardships, the position should not be without its joys. There is good money to he made from rescuing stranded motorists at ten-shillings a car; and the half-pound note has a more silken texture when the recipient knows that there is another excessively had patch round the next bend. But the small measure of good that the unseasonable weather may thus accomplish is entirely overbalanced by the fact that it has spoiled many people’s holidays. Moreover, it has created conditions that are really a very serious reflection on the Auckland Province. There is something altogether bizarre in the present situation of the northern peninsula, a populous' territory cut off from its capital by two days’ rain. The worst feature of all is that the impassable roads begin scarcely an hour’s run from Auckland. For fifty miles farther, in conditions like those of to-dav, the roads are just one obstacle after another. Intrepid indeed must be the motorist who challenges these long morasses; and skilful, to hoot, if he is to win through to his goal. After that nightmare fifty miles, he will run out again on to metalled roads. T; is a pathetic example of short-sighted planning that has given us two arterial roads between Auckland and Maungaturoto. Either road is satisfactory after fine weather, but summer or winter rains create the familiar barriers of mud, and these highways of the North become merely a handicap to the traveller. The eccentric character of past planning is again indicated by the existence of an excellent road system farther north; but it is a road-system without access to the South. The far North almost resembles a beleaguered garrison. The people there can move round within their own lines, but they cannot move beyond them without the special sanction of the weather. And that sanction has not lately been conceded. Work is at present in progress on many of the northern roads, and notably on the Waiwera-Warkworth section. Planned on a modern scale, the newer roads will be a credit to the country, instead of a disgrace. But according to the present rate of progress they will take years to finish; and in the meantime, by an unhappy paradox, the beneficent processes designed to help the motorist are proving his worst enemy. It is on the roads where construction works are in progress that conditions for the traveller are most difficult. Two years ago a holiday season was marred in just the same way as this has been. Scores and scores of cars were hauled out of muddy traps and placed on the trains. It was a. case of wheels upon wheels, and though motorists were assured that it was the last time such happenings would occur on a large scale, they are happening in precisely the same manner to-day. In view of the enormous burden placed upon motorists by the combination of the petrol tax and the licensing system, it is an unfortunate and irritating position.