DAY BY DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 92, Issue 14264, 15 January 1920, Page 4

DAY BY DAY.

The Waipa Counly Council has launched

on' a" -bold and Concrete Roads 'vigorous policy of

< for road construction. Waipa County. It proposes to raise ' a loan; of £163,000 for laying down 130 miles of road in concrete, and it nqw rests with the settlers i,o say whether •they will accept this policy of good main roads for all time, or go on struggling through the mud to the end of their days. The initial cost of good permanent roads may be great—it is great; but compared with the advantages these roads give to the settlers, and the tremendous saving in upkeep, they are far cheaper in the long run than the present wretched system, which is nothing but a 'source of annoyance and expense. The continual patching up of poor roads is a great drainorf the local body's revenue, without "giving anything like a commensurate return. The expense of tinkering over a long period of years is as great as the cost of laying down a permanent foundation, yet at the end of that time there is still only a stretch of morass in winter and a pitted, dusty track in summer. Spread over a large number of years the burden of the loan should fall no more heavily on the shoulders of the ratepayers than the present cost of maintenance, while the relative advantages of the two systems are not to be compared. We commend the Council'upon its wise and hold move, and hope the ratepayers will view the proposal broadly and sanction the loan. -

To have mails delivered by air seemed, . • only a few short years ago, Mails beyond the|realms of posby .the, advance in Air. air science brought about

by the war-has placed the air mail service on quite'a lower category of the accomplishments of aeronautics. Both England and America have been running aerial postal services to different parts of those countries, and New Zealand, never far behind in modern progressive systems, has recently successfully undertaken the delivering of mails by hydroplane to certain coastal towns. The Post-iraster-General, in a recent interview, commented upon the success, commercially, of the air services in England, where ordinary rates had been charged. Up to 100 miles the aeroplane, he said, could compete to advantage with the telegraphs and telephone, and be believed a good proposition would be to unite the aeroplane defence with the postal air service. While, of course, the difficulty in ex panding the postal air scheme in New Zealand is the shortage of planes, it should not be impossible, with the hydroplanes at present in service at Auckland, to deliver mails by air to inland towns where suitable stretches of water offer good landing places. Hamilton, in this respect, is an ideal place for experiments to be carried out, for the river, running as it does, right through the town, with a long, unbroken stretch, and the Lake, which is a mile long and half as much wide, should provide splendid landing places for planes of the hydro Type. We are pleased to see that the Chamber of Commerce is interesting itself in the matter, and hope the PostmasterGeneral will at least see his way to place Hamilton on the list of towns to which experimental flights will be made.