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Hokitika Guardian, 21 January 1925, Page 2

■Rival commodities and methods of application are being readily suggested those days for tar-sealing roads. According to a. statement made recently in the North Island, the Public Works Department has decided, after making investigations, to use restar as the sealing coat, in conjunction with bitumen. A Resident Engineer in the f!ishorne District stated that the Highways Board had come to that conclusion after all aspects had been considered carefully. The Board is said to have been influenced in its decision by the experience in the Taranaki disiriet. It is said that the principal difficulty with, bitumen if used alone is the disintegration caused by the excessive dust. Experiments had shown when made with restar that that preparation. although not immune from tile effect of dust, if used in conjunction with bitumen, greatly assisted in counter-acting the effect of the fust. With this indication as to the preference in the commodities to he used, local bodies have a good guide, and it may lie expected that following the example there will In' a general iffort to have the tar seating of roads generally extended. The improvement of roads "ill well repay the outlay, and at the same time he a lunch appreciated blessing to those using the roads.

New Zealand is not the only country exercised in mind over the loading problem. Profiting by the experience of engineers abroad, the efforts to provide good roads in this country have been guided to a great extent by news and views from other lands as to how. when, and where the host types ol roads should, he laid, and why. the minds of the Turks have been occupied recently with a like problem, in the solution of Which they have decided not to follow the example of other lessenlightened countries. Turkey is not blessed with a Alain Highways Board, hut their methods in lieu are not iike|v to provoke feelings of emulation in the Dominion. r l ho Angora National Assembly has passed a. law compelling all Turks to assist in road construction from six to twelve days yearly. The system is novel if not new. Centuries ago it was an obligation on many of the lower classes. As they became emancipated they could it they Wished make a money payment in lieu of labor. Out of this custom grew the payment- of local body rates. Compulsory road work was often a penalty for misdeeds and this form of punishment is said to obtain in certain British communities to the present day. The quality of the work accomplished under the Roman military system of road building is shown by the remains of great highways many centuries old still to he seen in parts of Great Britain.