AN OLD COAGH ROAD

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 21, 26 January 1938, Page 10

AN OLD COAGH ROAD

A Wellington motorist who has recently returned from the thermal district says that the old coach road between Waiouru and Tokaanu is now frequently used. The distance is 44 miles, about half of which is in "fif-teen-mile-an-hour" condition. From the Wellington end the road saves some thirty-odd miles. Sign posts wisely warn the traveller of wet weather. The Public Works Department has the road in hand, some ten miles of it being already brought up to a high standard. He suggests that a dozen men taken from the big camp and sent Over the whole road as a "flying squad" would make a great deal of difference to travelling conditions. In two years the best and shortest route from Wellington to Auckland will be via Taihape, Waiouru, Aliamuri, and Hamilton. This run then would not be too much to make in a day. The danger to traffic caused by excessive dust on the pumice roads in the central portion of the North Island, he said, was a very definite one. On hot dry days overtaking traffic becomes positively dangerous,- reminding one of blind flying in the air. Research, he remarks, has not yet found a simple nnd cheap method of sealing the surface oX country, roads.