THE PROGRESS LEAGUE.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16268, 19 July 1918, Page 5

THE PROGRESS LEAGUE.

to THi EDITOR OF "188 PBBSS." j . Sir, —I will bo glad if you will allow me to draw tho attention of the above body-to one or two matters that should be worth, attention. Wo hear of unproved railway facilities, one or the firet aims of the C.P L. should be to ask the Government to tear up tne Uae between Kirwee and Rolleston and felay it between Kirwee iand Islington, j It is not in the interests of the pro- I vince that the cost of travelling from Shriltcharrh to tho West Coast shou d unduly aggravated by a thoroughly

useless deviation to Rolleston, adding something between six to ten miles to the length of the journey. It may be all right for 4 he interests of Xeto Zealand "as a whole," but is undoubtedly a local handicap. The streets of Christchurch, or some of them, need radical alteration; the tendency is. to make them too high in the centre. I take it that the ideal road for vehicular traffic would be perfectly flat. We are unable to attain this iaeal, of course, owing to rain water; nevertheless, the ideal holds good, and therefore the object should be to get as near the ideal as possible, and if we cannot have them flat, then let them be as flat as possible. Instead of this, the crown has a tendency to grow higher and higher till the work of driving .a lorry with safety on slippery days is' gradually becoming mora and more difficult. If the roads were solid concrete it would bo possible to attain to almost the flat surface, but concrete roads with the present high crown prevailing, would be positively dangerous on frosty mornings. I believe Christchurch streets have the highest crown in the world. The city gutterings should be of the shallowest, so that a vehicle, if need be, could touch the kerb without harm- There is a tendency to make suburban and city guttering of one pattern, whereas the one is meant to take house water as well as storm water, while the other has to deal with stcrm water only. These little points may porhnps appeal to those who thii.'k of these things. A suburban gutter in the heart of the city looks village like. You will not End such in Dunedin or Auckland. An outside firm wants to establish a manure works near Chnstiihuroh, and its a good sign to see that the Council received the suggestion with a certain rmount of encouragement. In the bad old days it would doubtless have scouted the idea with scorn. The inevitable field for enterprises of this kind

!is certainly Islington way. I am writI ins this letter with ink made in Dunj edin. Why in thunder is it not made in Christchurch P We are hearing something now about the price of cement, which, apparently can be made anywhere in New Zealand but in North Canterbury. Why is this? We have lime, but I take it, no enterprise. The present entrance to North Canterbury through the Lyttelton tunnel is the cause of about seven-eighths of our entire disabilities, and should be altered in favour of direct sea carriage through the estuary, lut that is another story. Yet it is inseparably bound up with any effective progress we can make. People will not come here on account of the scenery, that is certain, but they may come here if attracted by an exhibition of real energy in overcoming our natural disadvantages, of which the Port question is the principal.—Yours, 6tC '' CANTERBURIAN.