A VISITING MOTORIST

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 55, Issue 3929, 21 July 1937, Page 6

A VISITING MOTORIST

CONDEMNS ROAD CONSTRUC. TION METHODS. SAYS “WE WERE TOSSED ABOUT LIKE CORKS I” A South Island motorist has been lamenting at length to our Hamilton contemporary on the very bad—“shocking,” he calls it—condition of the Te Awamutu-Ohaupo section of the Great South Road. We quote: “To leave a main highway in that condition, even when undergoing reconstruction, is an -absolute disgrace, and I cannot understand your motoring organisation letting those responsible get away with it. For several miles before I got to Ohaupo it was like driving over a ploughed field, and mine is a fairly heavy car. “I was forced to travel in low gear over a fairly long section, while wa tossed about like corks. I< was a most nerve-wracking experience. “I have motored throughout both Islands, and have never seen a highway left in such a deplorable state. Many motorists found difficulty in negotiating this stretch, and before long, I predict, it will be carpeted with nuts, bolts and broken springs.” , It seems safe to say that there has not been, collectively, an outburst of such complaints from all the regular users of the road as the foregoing—from one who has motored over it only once ! Surely the man must have realised that construction work was in progress, and that a sealed highway can not be provided without some inconvenience during the process. Regular users of the highway—and this includes the motor bus and service car drivers—very seldom make any adverse remark, for they realise that inconvenience for a period will be amply compensated for. Inquiry shows that there have been no undue hold-ups to motorists, and the workmen engaged are ever willing to assist anyone who experiences difficulty. We were told on Saturday last of one motorist who obviously had had little expericene of that particular class of road being helped past a bad patch of roadway by a couple of the workmen without the latter being even asked for a shove! They had been levelling some loose earth right beside the track, and the motorist had inadvertently steered into it instead of passing it. Second thoughts make us wonder if that “apparently inexperienced motorist” was the complainant to the newspaper - reporter in Hamilton. The Automobile Association —than whom there is no more critical organisation when roads are concerned —has accepted the conditions, and refrained from adverse comment, contenting itself with a notification to members to drive carefully and reduce speed when negotiating the parts of the road undergoing construction. If there was any real warrant for lodging complaints, we feel sure the A.A. would quickly have “made the welkin ring” with its call upon those responsible to remedy matters. . The contractors have not experienced suitable leather for pushing ahead with their work, but have carried on at full pressure, to give motorists the use of a sealed road at the earliest opportunity and we firmly believe that 99 per cent, of the motorists appreciate what is being done in their interests.