The Hutt News THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 1930. CRITICISM OF OUR ROADS.

Hutt News, Volume 2, Issue 44, 10 April 1930, Page 7

The Hutt News THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 1930. CRITICISM OF OUR ROADS.

Generally speaking, it is not the policy of the "Hutt News'" to deal wits articles which appear in ot&er nerflspaers, nor to reply to criticism i- from outside sources, but we feel iin- * pellet! to make more than passing refer- ■* ence to some criticism of an adverse' nature concerning the condition" of some of the^oads in. the new Government ara suohe criticism haying appeared in another paper and which quite possibly, left a false impression upon-the minds of many ratepayers, It w^ps pointed out that these roads were of recent construction, that ijhey had 'been made by the Borough Council for tie Public Works Department, and that they were already showing signs pf . wear find were,, in many places, badly pot-holed. Because of this condition of things the Council was called to task, so we have made fairly exhaustive, enquiries into the matter and, in fairness to the Council, wis-h to" place the , position before the ratepayers who will, we feel sure after perusal. of this article, exonerate the Council from blame. When t/hese roads were under construe- , tion, no niggardliness concerning costs. was shown by the Government, abso- ' lute care and skilled oversight were exercised by Council officers and workers, t>he result being roads of a splendid quality were taken over by the Borough and became our liability. We are. assured that these roads had been thoroughly soled and- adequately rolled with -rollers varying in weight up to' fourteen. tons. Now no" one imagines that mere

water-bound r.oads will stand up to modern traffic, rapid moving and Jieavy,

lienee it was only natural to assume .that the Council would take advantage of the excellent surface awaiting sealing and proceed to tai'-seal at the earliest moment. But such work cannot *be undertaken out of revenue, so proposals were submitted to the Loans

Boatd for permission" to raise.:a loan

ior this work. To the surprise of the <j^uncil and its officers, sanction was loused, so what could be_ done? The

annual allocation^ of Borough, revenue derived from Tates"ha"S"to~ be'apportioned among the various branches of municipal activities so a definite (and •^by no means large.) sum is set aside

-£ot street maintenance. This was to-

tally inadequate to do justice to our imany miles of roads, so for the time being very little could be done, but -that little was done. To seemre thfc

«urn necessary for such work means

•either a loan or a greatly increased rate: tie. loan was refused, and we

venture to say our ratepayers would

look very much, askance at the--mere suggestion of a marked rise in rates. It must also be borne in mind that when these Toads wer-e taken over by the Council, a large number of tho sections fronting on thtjm, were unsold, consequently were bringing in no rates

■to the Council. Practically; each montth sees more of these sections sold and "becoming a source of income to tflie Borough, so that for ordinaTy maintenance rather more money will be available. But this money can be for maintenance only and could not look at tar or bitumen sealing; The refusal t of "the Loans .Board meant t»hat work had to be abandoned, that motorists had to continue using a less desirable class of road wthere tyres sooner wore out •and where less mileage to the gallon could be obtained, and -in addition' residents in these roads vhad to put up with continued dust nuisance. The longer tie surface sealing of these and <^her roads is delayed the more ex'^rense will be entailed in tftieiT maintenance, whereas such cost, once the roads •are sealed, drops to something scarcely appreciable. Prom th« contents of *fchia article it, should be cleaT t&at the criticism, levelled against the Council was •quite undeserved; tfliat body was ready cad anxious to go ahead but the trump caTd was splayed by the Loans Board ■acting probably on the advice of the Piifolie Wotks Department.