Are Better Roads Possible.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 146, 8 April 1909, Page 5

Are Better Roads Possible.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, Tbe sight of horses plunging in mud at this early stage in the winter season leads one to wish that the King Country settlers could follow the example of the people in the backblocks of America so graphically described in the Auckland Star of October 21, 1905. True, conditions of soil and climate may not make it practicable, nevertheless the principle underlying that improvement holds good here as there, viz., the solidifying of the roadway by pressure in wet weatoer. Why do farmers not roll their land in wet weather? Why does the, beaten track become so hard? In the' Star account mentioned above, we read how a settler, becoming sick of driving home through mud and slush, winter

I after winter, thought of trying the | experiment of improving his road by going over it with a sort of clod crusher formed of three logs, bolted together so as to form a clod crusher and road grader at the same time. He set to work, made his grader, put in three horses, and ran it up and down through the mud an J slush to the amusement of some of the on looking neighbour?, but their amusement was turned to admiration when they found that by a few hours work mud and slush were a thing of the past for neighbour number I. And in a short time a "Good Ron Is League" was formed, each settler agreeing to clod crush the roadway past his section. Fill up the wheelmarks, solidify the roadway by rolling or clod crushing it in wet wcathrr, so that the rain will run into the gutter and not remain in | hotcs on the roadway. If this were done by settlers .and the Government were to have heavy steam or other rollers passing over the rwads during wet weather, especially over new earthworks there is no doubt that even the unmctatled roa 's of this province would be greatly improved at a merely nominal co-<t alike to the settlers or Government. So mote it be. - - I am, etc., A CORRESPONDENT. April 4th. 1909.