THE HUTT ROAD

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3146, 26 July 1917, Page 3

THE HUTT ROAD

PERMANENT SURFACE MOST ECONOMICAJ,. Tho rather extraordinary position of the sadly-deteriorated Hutt Bond . : s giving some of tho members of the Hutt Road Board a good deal of -oncern, and they are determined to do nil in their, power to bring matters to a head, for' they plainly see that as matters now exist the road' must go from bad to worse. At the last meeting of the Hutt Ttoad Board it iras decided, on tho motion of Mr. H. Baldwin, that tie estimates of the City Engineer (Mr. W. H. Morton) bo cut'down to £3500. The estimates should form a guide to the actual expenditure,,but that has rot been tho ease in the past, and the contributing local bodies are inquiring as to whether they can be held liable for a proportion of the moneys spent over and above the sum authorised to bo sr.ent by the boatd.

Speaking to a Dominion reporter yesterday, the Mayor of Hult (Mr. Baldwin) said'that he did not wish to be misunderstood in regard to his action in cuttug down the estimates. ' "No one," ho said, "is so greatly interested in this road as the Hutt. and Petone,, but we are entirely against a patching policy, and that appears to ly» the idea in some quarters. As a proof of that! would refer you to a resolution of the board of a vear ago, when it wns d°cided that the Wellington Citv Council should be empowered to raise the sum of ,£22.000 for the purposes of laying, down a '20ft. concrete track between Wellington and Pefono. Thomrh that resolution was passed, no notice has been taken of it. as far as J am r.waro." What should have been done? "Tlie council should have s> uglit Parliamentary sanction to r«\in the n'oney. Tt would have to be raised on the securifv of Wellinston city prope"ty, as the Hutt Timid is a Welli"eton c'lv road, and the legislation would provide that the contributing bodies should pnv their 1 riimta oT the interest on tho loan." "T am satisfied that the only solution to the Hutt Road problem is a rermnnent surface of some sort—anything else is 'mly nrolonging the agony." is the present position? "The Board has asked the Resbr Company, of Haireva, for a quotation for tb" cost of layin" down the rood in its own material. We have tried it with at the Tutt, and it mav do for tlm Hutt Road." Mr. Baldwin made if. nnife clear that the local bodies in the Valley realised t.ho value of a good Tond to the city, but were entirely npnosed to the rii'ininl drain on their limited re=oure»s. n-ith no nermanent good'being effeeteij'in tho Toad snrfac". They are against a "patching policy."