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Hokitika Guardian, 6 August 1925, Page 2

Tin-: ('• rev district in lommon with Tnangahmt. and Buller, lias withdrawn from the proposed joint West Coast exhibit at tile Dunedin Exhibition. It is a pity this is so. for tile Exhibition promises to he the largest ami best display of its kind the Southern Hemisphere has known, outside of South American cities. To he omitted from such ail event seems to ho a fatal mistake, particularly as there is so often complaint, of the district being neglected. This is a rather unique occasion for the Coast to help itself. IVe noticed the other day that the Prime Minister passed a iibo on the Coast when tie told a deputation the people were not in the habit of contributing. The display at Dunedin i.s of an international character and will draw people from the ends of the earth. If strangers to Now Zealand are to lie enticed this way the district must Ik> advertised, turd a worthy display at the Exhibition would be an excellent method of keeping Westland on the map of the Dominion. It will he a thousand pities if the district is not included with the rest of the provinces in a display worthy our great scenic attractions

Local Ixidies generally are taking more and more interest in the matter of useful road-making machinery to keep pace with the work of maintaining roads under the more intensive volume of traffic they are now subjected to. The engineer of the Tuapeka County has keen urging the Council to purchase up-to-date road making machinery .so that the repair work done may lie of a. more permanent nature. At present the metal put on the roads is quickly scattered into the water tables in the summer months leaving the work to be done all over again the following year. The Main Highways Board has a considerable

sum of money in reserve for the purchase of road making plant and is offering it to local bodies on terms providing for repayment over a period of four years. The system is being taken advantage of and recently the Gotha County Council made appplication for a road roller under it:. Tlni Clifton County Council with a roller operating a crusher plant has crushed 25,009 yards of metal in the last five years and has scarified and rolled many miles of road. Alaintenance expenses have amounted only to £lO, and the benzine consumption is only 12 gallons a day. The approximate life of a road put down with a roller is estimated at five years for gravel and seven for macadam ; and it may therefore easily he shown that the systematic use of nn up-to-date plant is economical in the long run.