STREET IMPROVEMENTS WITH MODERN PLANTMR. SEIVEWRIGHT

Wanganui Chronicle, 2 November 1950, Page 3

STREET IMPROVEMENTS WITH MODERN PLANTMR. SEIVEWRIGHT

If elected Mayor he would investigate the cost of improving streets and footpaths in Wanganui and would make the outcome of these investigations known to the public, said Mr. AC. Seivewright, Citizens’ Association candidate for the Wanganui Mayoralty, when he opened his campaign in the Opera House last night. “If necessary, I am prepared to put forward a proposal to raise a loan to get the job done thoroughly and efliciently once and for all,” Mr. Seivewright added. The purchase of a roadmaking machine, I am sure, is the answer to Wanganui’s street problem. With it the work could be done quickly. A small model can lay 50 to 60 tons of bitumen per hour, and the larger model 200 tons.”

Wanganui has more potholes per mile than any other city in New Zealand, said Mr. Seivewright. Last election he had advocated improving roadL and footpaths. Many of the roads were untidy. On dry days clouds of dust annoyed residents. Citizens as a whole were completely fed up with these conditions. “The state of the roads has become more accentuated since the new transport system commenced operating. The heavy buses travelling up to 30 miles per hour raise clouds of dust and on wet days scatter mud in all directions. The streets of Wanganui cost the ratepayers thousands of pounds yearly in damage done to vehicles,” Mr. Seivewright said. “When the Auckland transport experts were in Wanganui helping us form Greyhound Buses, Ltd., they were all emphatic that the roads had

to be fixed up otherwise the maintenance charges on our vehicles would be a big factor. If the roads hurt our vehicles, what must they be doing to other transport operators, private cars and so on?

The City Council say that it has no money to fix the roads. It has spent only £7082 on tar sealing during the last 12 months out of a total rate collection of £122,641. This small sum is only playing with the problem. Furthermore, when any new streets are to be’ layed down they are not firstclass examples of modern street making. There is only one way to do the job and that is the right way and when it comes to laying down modern streets the world’s best methods should be employed. "During the past weeks I have been looking around New Zealand in search of knowledge so far as modern street making is concerned, and I am convinced that what we need in Wanganui is the worlds latest mechanical methods to do the job. I am sure many citizens have been up Taupo wav during the last year or so and have had the pleasure of motoring over the magnificent roads in that district. These roads were layed by means of a modern road-making machine. It is what we want in Wanganui, we can have the best streets of any city in New Zealand with this machine.

“To buy one of the machines I think would be an economy; anyway Invercargill has already bought one and the Invercargill City Council has an identical problem as Wanganui. They, too, are in the midst of scrapping their trams. To buy the machine the same model as the Invercargill City Council have ordered would cost approximately £3750, or, if we buy a larger model, the cost would be £4419, but as we have thousands of pounds worth of work to do on the streets, this cost is small.

"With the present methods employed we do not get a first-class job, but with a modern road-making machine we can get the world’s best in modern streets. These machines are usee throughout America and England, and why we cannot have one for Wanganui I cannot see. It is not a matter of what you pay to have a job done, it is what you get for what you pay that counts,” Mr. Seivewright added.