THE MAIN HIGHWAY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, 2 May 1941, Page 4

THE MAIN HIGHWAY

Sir,—At tlic Chamber of Commerce meeting the question af the route for the jjroposeid (?) main highway came up for discussion unci 1 noticed that some of the debaters said that it, was customary now for main highways to by-pass the towns. This ,is quite true, but only true in cases whore it is necessary to do so, and I am inclined to think there are few centres in New Zealand where it would be wise to by-pass the town. There is a special reason why main highways avoid going through certain centres and that is because the thoroughfares of those centres are too narrow to take the traffic. This condition obtains mostly in Europe where many of the main streets: are not more titan 12 or 14 feet wide. And these narrow streets are what used to be the main highways! —old coach roads. You meet them everywhere in England. The main highway, widened in modern timesi plunges into a eity of narrow streets where in many cases two 1 cars could not pass each other. There is a placn in the South cf England I think called Hith where' the main street is so" steep that a Ford 10—in spite of what the local agent says of its prowess—can hardly climb in low gear, and is so narrow that to pa;si a bus both vehicles had to put one wheel on the footpath and scrape along the l tront wall of the houses on: either side. Hence the necessity of forming the main highway past such towns. As far as I I'now there is no such necessity anywhere in New Zealand. Main/ highways are. to take travellers by the shortest practical route from one centre to another and for the life of me 1 cannot sac.any reason why they should not go through the main street of any such centre. Few people travel through the corntry that do not wishi to see the towns they arc passing.

As to Whakatanc' —and any othe" place for that matter —there can only be one right place, for the road and it. should be constructed m that place regardless of reasonable expense. I run told that to construct the road, to Ohope via the Heads and; a tunnel would ' cost about £100,000 more than a road up the gorge. One hundred thousand pounds is a lot of money, but in main highway construction is comparatively speakings a mere hagatcflle. The; late Mr Rand who surveyed the Heads route told me that the distance from the Strand to Ohope beach, would; be well under two miles as against four milesi meandering through the hills and endeavouring to reach the snow line by the other route. It seems to me Sir, that if wo allow this another injustice to be done to Whakatane Ave; Avill have lost the l last amenity that we are likely to get. We are in the very ce.ntre of the Bay, a wealthy district and we have neither railway, roadl or aerodrome. How long is this dry rot going to be. allowed! to go on ! May I remind those who advocate a bypass road that there is onei thing that governs the locality of a centre and one thing only, and that is access. Towns are 1 built on harbours, waterways or roads and if 3 by-pass road is constructed: shops will soon spring up alongside it and before long it will, cease to be a bypass but a source" of regret that a longer view had not been taken in earlier times. Yours etc., JOHN PEARSON.