The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 1908. GOVERNMENT ROAD MAKING.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13665, 6 August 1908, Page 4

The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 1908. GOVERNMENT ROAD MAKING.

Mr OrbelPs 'remarks to the members of the Levels County Council at yesterday's meeting in regard to the loading of the Rotewili Settlement emphasise the necessity for an abatement of 'the Government'.* autocratic power to foist unsatisfactory roads upon local bodies. A County Council, as tho chairman said, I can in&ist upon a private individual making roads up to the standard of its requirements, buL it, can be compelled by the Government! to take over roads constructed by the Department even though it knows that, they are -unsatisfactory and that they will 'give way to the first serious strain that is put -upon. them. This is such an obviously unjust position that it only requires to' be stated in order to make its injustice apparent to 'tie public, aifd also, we hope, to the* Government a& well. There is some little prospect Ihait the present Cabinet will pay more attention lo the representations of the local body affected than ttlio Levels County Council could secure when the Rosewill 'Settlement was being roaded, because the Premier "has, voluntarily pushed the ' importance of the loading ■ question into the front of his policy. He is making arrangements to spend! no'less a sum than a million starling within four years for loads in .the, backblocks, .while the needs" of settlers in .""more favoured districts are also to receive greater financial , assistance than has been the case in the .p'ast. . This year he is asking Par-

liament to provide £650,000 for roads and bridges, £250,000 of tins amount to go to' the special backblocks fund to which we have already referred. . It. would be a. national calamity, however, if .any: considerable part of this sum were to bo misspent as money has been in the. Koscwill Settlement, for lit is surely the' rankest folly that Government officials, in the face of sound, advice to the contrary,' should persist in concluding a road which invites disaster from the first, heavy rainfall tlia.l. happens -along. Unless the case -had actually occuried, one would hardly believe it possible that, the incident described by Mr Orbell yesterday could Idee place. "The Government, closed a piece of bound toad," he said, "and laid outl « new piece across a, deep gully. This ought to have been bridged, but instead of a, bridge the Government put an embankment acioss it, with pipes at the bottom. He told' the engineer that the whole thing Mould bo v, ashed away by any big flood, but they took no notice. The Government never'asked the Council for any advice,l or for any information, or what their experience of Hoods had been and so en. They spent £BO or £9O in filling in the gully, im d anyone who knew the locality could' have told them that 'the' embankment would bo washed away." It) has been washed away, and the State has lost £BO or £9O which need not have been lost if the Government's officials had been willing to listen to the advice of people whose local knowledge and experience enabled them to give useful advice. Things, could hardly have been done worse by any of the local bodies whose unsatisfactory methods we commented upon by the ' Premier in his Financial-Statement last'month!' '"The present b y stein of roading by'.souna 'of our local bodies is in the highest degree unsatisfactory," said Sir Joseph In that document. "I Ava3 more t jj an aJJ tonishcd to find upon my recent tour tlitough the North that more than, one important County Council earned on its work without the tervices of an engineer." The result is, to put it mildly, that far from the best results have been obtained. The employment of a local engineer should be made compulsory." A corollary to the compulsory employment of ti local engineer is that lie should be given charge of the! construction of reading pperations in his district, including the roading of resumed estates. ]f that plan were fol-' loucd, the State would .be .saved* ih« expense consequent upon the building of an embankment where a bridge is required, and the County Council would be relieved from the obligation of ha-ving to take over untatisfaotoiy roads from the Government by virtue of a "UafceUe" notice.'