NOTES OP THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2401, 5 March 1915, Page 4

NOTES OP THE DAY

That portion of the publio which uses the Hutfc Road will be pleased indeed to hear that six surfacemen are "very shortly" to be employed continuously in keeping it in a state of repair. Tho road has been , completely neglected'since the Railway Department about a year ago turned its maintenance over to the local bodies concerned. The deterioration that has taken place in that time has been very noticeable, and had another winter been allowed to pass without some work being done the fine main highway to the city would have been reduced to a deplorable state. The delays in connection with the matter have been interminable, and Mr. Luke is to be congratulated on the steps he has taken to enable the Oity to defray the cost of maintenance- and collect the shares* of the other local bodies later on under a Government indemnity. The deadlock' has arisen in consequence of the 'Petone Council objecting to the allotment of 18 per cent of the cost as its share. As Mr. Luke points out, that borough benefits more than any other by the road, as all freight between the City and Petone goes in the carriers' carts. The cost of maintaining the road was estimated by the ■ City Engineer eighteen months ago at £3000 per annum, and it is hard to believe that Petone's share of that sum under the allotment would be at all disproportionate to the-bene-fits''it receives from this highway.

While on the subjcct of roads, another step in the movement in the country lor more economical and durable methods of road-making should be recorded. This is the recommendation of a Special Committee of the Kairanga County Council —controlling the rural area around Palmerston North—that a_ roadroller, stone-crusher, traction engine, and plant should be purchased. The Committee made its report after a visit to Southern Taranaki, where it inspected the extensive road improvements that have been carried out there by the various County Councils. Driven into building as permanent roads as possible by the scarcity of metal and its high cost, the Taranaki. County Councils by their intelligent enterprise have set an example to local bodies throughout the Dominion, and have given a stimulus to road improvement work that has already borne good fruit in districts scattered from one end of the country to the other. As the result of their investigation the Kairanga Committee are satisfied that their Council at moderate cost can make tho county roads second to none in New Zealand. Roads nowadays cannot be built to last.without an expenditure on plant, but the experience of those bodies which have taken the plunge is almost unanimously that the outlay is thoroughly justified by the benefits it brings in its train.

Dissatisfaction in Auckland gives promise of a serious rift in the Dominion's University system. Under the present arrangement each of the university colleges specialises in certain directions—Auckland in commerce and mining, "Wellington -in law and.science, Canterbury in engineering, and Otago in medicine, dentistry, and mining. The system is intended to enable the different colleges to reach a higher degree of. efficiency in their special subjects than would otherwise be possible. But it carries with it. obvious disadvantages. Me. J. W. Tibbs, headmaster of the Auckland Grammar School, and a, member of the University Senate," states that tho net result, so far as Auckland is con-, oerned. is that the students go, not to Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin, to continue their courses, but to universities ' abroad. For twenty years he has; he says, reminded the Grammar School boys of the advantages offered by our University. During that period one has graduated in engineering at Christchurch and six at the University of California; for every medical student who has gone to Dunedin three have gone to Britain, and so with the other faculties. The dis-. satisfaction in Auckland has been brought to a head by the refusal of the Senate to recognise tho school of engineering which it was proposed to establish. Independence is in the air in the north, and it is suggested that the plan should be proceeded with and students qualified for the A.M.I.C.E. instead of the New Zealand degree in engineering. There should surely he room for compromise between the aspirations of Auckland and_ the wpneral principlo of the existiug b'nivovsitv scheme. Auckland suffers more than Hie other centres from tho specialisation principle, for its students arc obliged to travel much (fixator . dinteneeir to attend tho suutbarn oollcgo