HAURAKI PLAINS ROADS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4379, 17 February 1922, Page 2

HAURAKI PLAINS ROADS.

• — ■ SUITABILITY OF TAR A TARANAKI EXPERIMENT. ON FAMOUS EAST ROAD. PRACTICAL MEN ENTHUSIASTIC. Further interesting information in regard to reading matters were obtained. from Mr W. Madgwick, .of,// Turua, by a representative of the j “Gazette” during the course of a conversation. Mr Madgwick, who has just returned from a visit to Tara-, naki, states that the famous East Road (Stratford County) is being tarred. It may be as well to explain to the ( uninitiated that the "famous” ought . to be “infamous,” as the road is notorious for its vile compound of papa and swamp formation, with no solid bottom. It is worse by far in the winter time than any road on the Hauraki Plains; than this description nothing could be more condemnatory. One of the foremen met by the members of the Good Roads Committee (Tufua) who visited Taranaki recently was Mr Alf. Hansen, whom Mr Madgwick again saw on his second trip. (Mr Madgwick ic a member of the committee.) Mr Hansen is just as staunchly in favour of tar • as before, and nr his. capacity as forei man of the Waimate West County Council he has had many years of experience. Tn Taranaki, by the way, there are very few county engineers. The overseeing is done by foremen, and engineers are employed on- the usual commission for important works. Another practical man who "swears' by tar” is Mr R. H. Cameron, a contractor who has handled new metal for 300 miles of loading, exclusive Of the metal he has used for patchingAfter this large experience his views on the subject of tar versus ordinary macadam should'carry some weight. The experiment on the East Road will be watched with interest; if successful, it would be safe to follow suit on the Hauraki Plains.