LAYING OUT THE HIGH-ROADS

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1776, 14 June 1913, Page 21

LAYING OUT THE HIGH-ROADS

NORTH .V. SOUTH COMPARED. The construction of Toads in the Wellington Provincial District in the early days was a very arduous enterprise. "When a road had to bo taken through a forest area, its route was first defined by a narrow cut line, duly marked by pegs. When tho survey had been completed, gangs of labourers were put on, who were employed either by contract or day labour, so far as the first roads were concerned. About the year 1800 the co-operative system was introduced. The first operation in roadmaking through forest country was the felling of the forest for a width of 66 feet and the extraction of stump 3 and clearing of the surfaco for half that width in the. centre of the cleared line. Then caino the task of making the necessary cuttings and embankments and bridges and culverts. Men so employed often worked for long periods in remote localities, accessible only by tracks- on which even a pack-horse could not find a footing. In such cases the road-makers had to carry their stores on their backs. There was no attempt, in. making roads through difficult forest country, to stick to a straight lino. Big cuttings were avoided, and the roads pursued a winding course through tho valleys and gullies. Every care was taken, however, to secure theeasiest possibio grades, and to construct the roads so that they would get as much sunshine as possible, and dry quickly after being soaked with.rain. It is an extraordinary thing that in the flat open country, notably in parts of Canterbury, the roads have been laid out in a. much less satisfactory way than in the hilly regions of the North Island, which presented so many obstacles and difficulties .'to the pioneer road-makers. The explanation is stated to be that many of the roads through easy country follow the crosscountry routes which were taken by bullock teams in the early days before roads existed. The lino that a bullock-driver will take with his team in unroaded country is not necessarily the best line upon which to form a road. Obstacles which blocked the progress of the bullock teams may be easily surmounted by the exercise of a little engineering skill, and it is worthy of note, too, that the bullock teams in pioneering days would strike the rivers at the best fording points. These are not the best places at which to build bridges when roads are being formed. Mr. J. W. A. llarchant, ex-Surveyor-General, who supplied the foregoing facts, is of opinion that the roads in the Wellington district, though laid through forest country, compare very favourably with the roads made through open areas in the South Island. This, as stated, he attributes to the fact that the southern roads in question were formerly bullock-dray tracks, which were gradually improved, though never completed in such a way as to represent tho best possible road on a particular route.