TAR FOR THE STREETS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 404, 14 October 1911, Page 5

TAR FOR THE STREETS.

DUST VIRTUALLY GONE. The use of tar as a preventer of tha dust nuisance is now engaging the attention pf the Auckland municipal authorities, and the Mayor (Mr C. J. Parr) is strongly impressed with its value and efficacy. He referred to the subject in conversation with a reporter last Saturday, and quoted the result of English experience. "The virtual disappearance of the road dust nuisance in the driest summer Great Britain has experienced since motor cars first ran upon the roads is a matter of general comment, remarks one newspaper to which he referred. This is all the more remarkable when it is remembered that last year 37,000 motor vehicles were added to the road traffic, and that enough petrol was consumed to represent journeys amounting to 600,000,000 miles. This year the miles covered by motor vehicles of all kinds probably exceed 700,000,000, and yet there is no outcry about the dust on the roads. The removal of this evil is due to the fact that road engineers have known how to use tar." He also referred to the adoption at Handsworth, Birmingham, of a compound of tar and shredded leather waste. After nearly a year's wear, the road so made showed practically n) signs of wear. Heavy wheels made no impression on it, and it was a comfortable material for horses to tread on. The leather was shredded to a pulp, and treated with bitumen and tar, and in this application what was hitherto a useless material found a value.