ROADS AND BRIDGES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143767, 16 April 1912, Page 2

ROADS AND BRIDGES.

In an article advocating tlie “rescue” of the Roads branch from tho Public Works Department, where it is being strangled, and its restoration as an adjunct of the Lands Department, the Dunedin Star remarks that, while the expenditure on railways and public buildings during the .last three years has rapidly increased, the allocation from tlie Public Works Fund on account of roads is gradually dwindling out of sight. The co-opcqitive or day labour system ot road-making, like tho celebrated O’Cullagnan, appeals to ho on its last legs, and the road engineers—some of whom have had a life’s training, and are understood to be men well qualified tor the duties they had to perform—are having a bad time. They are not exactly being converted into chaff and masticated Between the jaws ot the iron horse, but they are undergoing a sort of digestive, process that cannot fail to be aggravating. Our contemporary supports its remarks by quoting figures snowing that while in the year 1900-01 tho expenditure on railways was £717,723, on roads £315,791, aucl on Public buildings £121,364, these figures had increased in 1905-06 to £1,077,978, £360,706, and £160,214 respectively, and last year tho expenditure on. railways had grown to £1,184,083, and on public buildings to £325,613, but that on roads had fallen to £270,648. Railways and public buildings have, in fact, multiplied, while roads arc virtually starved. The Star proceeds;— “Whether such a policy, if continued, will benefit tho country is a question that demands serious consideration, and now that we have a new Minister for Public Works we presume it will have his attention. It has often beon remarked that roads being the natural feeders of our railways, their importance should not bo overlooked. But what is of still greater concern is the fact that cannot be challenged; that to the young settler roads and bridges are simply indispensable. In localities whore the land is being broken up, such as Taranaki, the King Country, and the North of Auckland, the great want of the pioneers are roads and bridges to enable them to reach the railway line, the nearest market, and the nearest port. Without tho roads tho country cannot properly bo opened up, and to throw open land for occupation, with no immediate prospect of haying tho sections brought into communication with the centres of population is to v irtually bait a trap for the unwary settler. The sufferings that pioneers and their families have undergone through year's of imprisonment in a roadless country are too well known to need further recital. Considering all the circumstances of the country, the fact that the expenditure from the Public Works Fund on buildings considerably exceeds the amount applied to roads and bridges is a matter that should receive general attention How to improve the country and increase the exports of the Dominion are questions of all-absorbing interest. There are many who view the way in which the Roads Department has been treated as a huge blunder, inimical to the welfare of New Zealand, and from every point of view unwise and unstatesmanlike. Tho placing of the supervision of roads and bridges under an engineering staff accustomed only to railway works appears, on the face of it, to be an absurdity. Is it reasonable to assume that men whose training has been devoted to the construction of railways can efficiently perform the duties of road engineers? Who would think of asking the driver of a labour express to take charge of a traction engine or a motor car?” To our mind, however, the fault lies not so much in the placing of road works under the supervision of railway engineers as in the failure of the Government and the Public Works

Department to appreciate the fact that roads are of first importance to pioneer settlors. If they have good roads they can wait for railways, bat even if they hay© railways they roust still have roads to enable them to make full use of them. At any rate it is gratifying to find a paper like the Dunedin Star so strongyl advocating the claims of the settler to roading facilities.

A post and telegraph office will bo established at the Territorial camp at Hawera for the convenience of all ranks.

The Now Plymouth Operatic Society will hold its first practice on Thursday evening next in rooms above Messrs. .Collier and Co.

Members of the New Plymouth Operatic Society are reminded that the scores of “The Geisha” are now to hand and may be obtained from Messrs. Collier and 00.

On March 7 M. Salmet, on a Bleriqt monoplane, flew from London tc Paris in 3 hours 12 minutes, at ;■ «p->ed of over 70 miles an hour—the journey by train and steamer by the shortlist sea route occupies 7 hours 20 minutes.

The standing orders which have been issued in connection with the forthcoming camp of the Territorials at Hawera provide that no alcoholic liquor is on any account to bo brought into the camp. A “dry” canteen will be established. The Conciliation Council resumed its sitting at New Plymouth to-day to hear the dispute of the carpenters and joiners. Business is proceeding in a very satisfactory way, and it is probable a settlement of the matters in dispute will be arrived at.

At all parades, in the camp at Hawera, except physical drill the men will wear uniforms, belts, and putties. At musketry parades men will wear the additional pouch equipment, and at physical drill putties anil coats will not be worn. Outside camp, undress, with belts. In a letter to Mr. Cecil W. Palmer, hon. secretary of the Navy League, Lieutenant Knox writes: “I am so very sorry to hear that poor Mr. Tisch, of New Plymouth, has joined the majority. He and others were so very kind to mo wheiuwe went there. I love showing my beautiful coloured slid© of Mount Egmont and the one of Pukekura Park at New Plymouth.” The value of exports of the principal New Zealand products for the month of Marcli show a shrinkage of £27,241 for the month, but for the twelve month ended March 31, the shortage amounts to £2,320,032, the difference between the total value for the past twelve months of £17,626,946 and £19,946,978, the value set on the total of the chief exports for the year ended March 31, 1911.

Up to the end of March 794 pensions to widows had been granted, involving an annua! liability of £15,900. The average pension is £2O; the families of the beneficiaries range from one to fifteen. The Postmaster-General (Hon. H. G. Ell) says he is satisfied that the advantages of the Act are not yet as widely known as they ought to be, but the department estimates that at the end of twelve months from the coming into operation of the. Act there will be nearly the number on the pension list that waa estimated, namely, 3000. "While glancing through an old file of the Taranaki Herald we chanced upon the following, in November, 1879:—“A novel theatrical company, under the style of ‘Stray Leaves,’ aro about making a tour through New Zealand from Melbourne. From a Bendigo paper we find the company well spoken of, audit is composed of Miss Ella Carrington, a charming and celebrated burlesque actress; Miss Nellie Mansell, great in ballad music, late of the Academy of Music; Mr. J. F. Fordo, late principal baritone of Lyster’s Opera Bouffe Company; and Mr C. H. Taylor, late principal character actor of the Theatre Royal, Melbourne.” For a second time, recently, Lieut. Knox, of tho Navy League, has been the guest of H.R.H. tho Prince of IVales at York Cottage, Sandringham. On this occasion he gave an illustrated address on New Zealand, ‘‘the first country to offer a Dreadnought to the Empire.” Tho coloured slides which the Tourist Department gave to Lieut. Knox when in Wellington wore greatly admired ; and during his stay at York Cottage ho presented each of the Royal children with books descriptive of New Zealand which Lieut. Knox had obtained from Sir "William Hall-Jones, the High Commissioner. In a letter to the Wellington lion, secretary of the Navy League, Lieut Knox writes; “All hands are looking forward with intense delight to welcoming the King and Queen home again, and no one more so than the six charming children at York Cottage. Their Majesties have done splendidly for India and the Empire.” Lieut. Knox then goes on to refer to the way in which France and Russia are being drawn more closely to Britain, “a most important thing for the peace of the Empire and Europe.” Tho windiest day New York has known since the "Weather Bureau was organised, starting with a record breaking blast of 96'miles an hour, before daylight, drew to a close Thursday night February 22, with the air current 'still moving at the high rate of 52 miles an hour. There was little let-up all day in the driving gale. The record of 83 miles which has stood since 1909, was equalled during the morning, and from all sections ot the city and suburbs and from river, harbour, and sea came accounts of damage amounting to 500,000 dollars. Reports of extensive losses by high winds upstate and in Now England were numerous through the day. Destruction was spread 611 along the north Atlantic coast and far inland. Wire service in all directions was badly crippled and the hardest kind of work by repair gangs was required to restore the service to something apjiroachiug normal conditions. Hundreds of heavy plate glass windows in New York were shattered, tall chimneys were blown down, signs were carried away, craft were sunk, and pedestrians were swept from their feet. Many persons were injured by being hurled against the sides of buildings, and others were cut by flying glass or struck by falling signs. Scores of buildings were unroofed by tho gale. Twenty persons were killed, and at least sixty injured, many st them seriously, in the cyclonic storm which swept a strip of Northern Louisiana and Mississippi. Dozens of small hohses wore blown down, and many cattle were killed. The property damage, according to the incomplete reports received at New Orleans, will total perhaps 500,000 dollars. The fatalities, except in three instances, arc those of negroes. One white child was killed at Shrevport.

With the advent of colder nights, warm bedding claims the attention of capable housewives. White and Sons are ready with a stock of blankets and quilts, at bed-rock prices. Every blanket we stock is ail wool colonial make, and may be relied upon for years of Balaa£actory.j«f>aj^.J

The Mangorei Co-operative Dairy Factory Company will pay out, on the 20th inst., £BSO 18s 9d for March milk. This is an advance of £538 Is on last year’s figures. The Eltham County Council has authorised its engineer, Mr. Basham, to order a tar-spraying machine" in order to thoroughly test the system of tarring roads next summer. There whs an exceptionally good muster of B. Company Territorials at the Drill Hall last night when the new uniforms were issued. For the convenience of those who did not parade last night the company’s Quarter-mast-er will be in attendance at the Drill Hall to-night to issue uniforms, especially to those attending camp. According to the Liverpool Journal of Commerce, there has been a remarkable development in shipping since the advent of oil fuel. It consists of contracts that were let during the latter part of February for the building of no less than 21 oil-tankers of large dimensions. These ships can bo adapted either to coal or oil. The whole of the contracts have been placed with shipbuilding yards on the north-east coast of England.

“The only thing that stands in the way of successful development of the oottou-growing industry in Australia,” said the New South Wales Minister for Agriculture the other day, “is a cottonpicking machine that will take the place of cheap labour in other parts of the world. AVe are carefully watching the progress reports on a cotton machine now in use in another place, and if it is successful we will import one for experimental purposes.”

“I am certain that the State could manufacture boots and retail them at 5s per pair less on the average than they are sold to-day, make a profit, and compete successfully with the foreign article. I make that statement with a full sense of responsibility, and am prepared to prove it up to the hilt if required.” That observation was made by Mr. 0. R. AA’hiting, a delegate to the Trades Councils’ Conference, and himself a practical bootmaker, at the sitting of the conference on Friday. Miss Joan Sinclair, an American girl, was left £12,000 a year ago. Unfortunately for herself the money was not “tied up” in any way, and the girl, quite unused to having or handling big sums of money, imagined that her fortune was practically' inexhaustible. She squandered it on dress, giving immense orders for frocks at all the most expensive shops, sometimes buying as many as twenty dresses at a time, and paying for them here and there. At the end of the twelve months every penny was gone, and she has nothing to show for it but rows and rows of boxes containing dresses, which she is unable to sell again for anything like the sums she paid for them. People are asking whether it is true that a spy was arrested at Otago; Heads,, on Sunday week. The tale arises out of a very simple occurrence, relates a Dunedin paper. An administrative officer in the service of one of the public institutions is an ardent photographer, and always takes his camera when he gees about. He went to the heads on a ferry boat and was about to step ashore when an artilleryman politely but firmly ordered the master of the vessel to stop the camera from being passed over the rail. Protestations of innocent intent served no purpose, and the soldier was also immovable when told that the instrument would only be used about the beach. The orders were that no cameras were to be landed, and that was an end of it. The incident created some amusement amongst the passengers. The working hours in Chinese schools seem somewhat astounding. According to a visitor to China, the small boy goes to, school at daylight and returns home at dark, and he has no regular holidays. He works at hie lessons from daylight till dark on seven days of the week, Sunday being the same as any other day. In summer he enters the classroom before five o’clock in the morning. He goes heme for breakfast, 'dinner, and tea. During the shorter winter days his working hours are shorter, but or.© of the meals is dispensed with. There is no fixed allowance of time for the meals. When the visitor asked the schoolmaster questions concerning his system he replied simply, “He will como back when he has taken food. When the light come he will come, and when the light go he will go.” The price of coal was again under discussion at the Trades Councils’ Conference on Friday. It was hinted by Mr. G, R. "Whiting that the rise in the price of coal was due to some combination of interests which possibly exerted some influence over the State Coal Department. Whether that was so or not, Mr. Whiting insisted that the whole position would be investigated by the executive of the United labour Party with a view to ascertaining the true facts. Mr. Sullivan, another Canterbury delegate, declared that it was useless to look for a vigorous administration of the State coal enterprise so long as they had a party in power which was compelled to initiate the enterprise by virtue of the pressure of public opinion and not because it believed in" the principle of the departure. It was decided to refer the matter to the United Labour _ Party, with power to act in any direction deemed necessary.

It is reported, and apparently with some truth, that a .Russian scientist has discovered a substitute for rubber which is so much better than rubber that it has to be adulterated to bring it down to rubber level. To put the case properly, it has to be said that it is actually pure rubber which is manufactured. This is done by chemical synthesis, just as this manufactures indigo and many other vegetable products without the preliminary of growing the vegetables. This Russian chemist, knowing the constitution of rubber, as ascertained by chemical analysis, has found out how to produce it in the laboratory, and he can produce it of such purity as to beat, far and away, the purest rubber obtainable by the process of treating the juices of rubber-producing plants. This produce, when the last mail left England, was quoted at 4s 7jd per pound. The Russian chemist can make purer stuff and sell it at Is 3d per pound. So the story runs. To it is added the statement—and it appears to be well-founded—that a syndicate of capitalists has embarked upon the manufacture. If the story is true, if it is only approximately true, the news will be welcome to all users of rubber-tyred vehicles. But—and here is another illustration of the old proverb, “What is one man’s meat is another's poison”—-how about the millions recently invested in rubber plantations ?

The Melbourne Clothing has full stocks of men’s blue military coats, all specially selected and in good condition. Prices, without capes 23s 6d, with capes 26s 9d. Specially selected line .of cavalry cloaks with capes 27s 6d, boys’ topcoats 9s 6d, 12s 6d to 15s 6d, youth’s raincoats 21s 9d to 26s 9d, men’s raincoats 29s 6d, 32s (id, 39s Gd to 49a -dd,. .boys’ .oiJsMns 8a lid.*

The 'Wellington office reports that the Victoria, Dlimaroa and Wimmera will probably be within wireless range to-night. On account of the staff attending the camp at Hawera, parades for this week and next for the New Plymouth Senior Cadets and Technical College Cadets have been cancelled.

By the Corinthic 450 third class passengers arrived to-day, about 50 per cent, being Scotch. Included is a large number of domestic servants, cooks and housemaids, almost all of whom appear to be engaged to go to places in various parts of the Dominion.—Press Association.

Mr. Saunders, manager of the Empire Picture Company, has offered to hold a picture entertainment on Tuesday, 30th inst., in aid of the Central Boy Scouts. The funds are required for uniforms and to enable the boys to be present at Wellington to take part in the great Scout rally in honour of Baden-Powell when he arrives on May 25. As the entertainment is for a worthy object, a hearty response to the boys’ appeal is confidently expected.

Mrs. Lindoh, who recently made the ascent of Mount Cook, is the wife of the rector of the Geelong GrammarSchool, and is an annual visitor to the Hermitage in the Southern Alps. Mrs. Linden was the first woman ,to cross the great divide, the passage over the Southern Alps from the East to the West Coast being accomplished by her three years ago. Mrs. Lindon made the journey to join her husband, who was doing glacier work on the western side.

That the cutting off of a day’s racing from the A.R.C. Autumn Meeting by the Racing Commission has not had the effect of reducing speculation, was fully evidenced at the club’s recent meeting, when the record sum of £68,947 10s was passed through the machines on the two days. This represents an increase of £21.298 10s for the corresponding period the previous year, and £lßsl over last year’s gathering, when the racing extended over three days.

Among the many things The Kash do so well are men's slip-on overcoats. They’ve just imported a range of the famous Gaberdeen slip-ons, beautifully cut and made in the latest London style. Prices from 455, Don’t forget a specialist in clothing sees the garment on you.*