REFORM IN ROAD MAKING.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 442, 24 February 1912, Page 5

REFORM IN ROAD MAKING.

PROGRESS IN THE KING COUNTRY. Under the supervision of the district engineer, Mr Williams, there are the Te Kuiti road district in order to give access to settlement and improve the roads generally. An example of the progress made is to be seen between Te Kuiti and Aria where the road grader is busily engaged. Hitherto with pick and shuvel only a chain could be completed as against a mile or more with machinery, also the cost of maintaining the roads is reduced to a minimum by the use of the new method. A large number of sections of road around Aria, where the dairying industry is being prosecuted with considerable vigour, are being metalled so as to enable settlers to drive a horse and cart over them in the winter months—a thingnever heard of or dreamt of in the past. Another

very important feature of the work that is being carried out under the resident engineer's supervision is the completion of a dray road between Te Kuiti and Mangaroa—the heart of the King Country via the Waitewhena Valley. At present there are 40 to 50 men employed on thif road and it is anticipated that in two or three months it will be ready for vehicular traffic. On the main road between Ongarue and Mangaroa in the Ohura there is a considerable amount of activity being shown by the department in pumicing and fascining those very bad places on the road, in which the mail coach was so frequently bogged last The method of improving this road is by laying 66 fascines to the chain over which one foot of pumice is spread, the earth water tales being backed up to the butts of the fascines to keep them solid, thus providing a solid ten-foot road for traffic. The bad sections of the road between Pio Pio and Mahoenui are to be metalled before the winter months set in. The work will be placed in hand almost immediately and this step forward, no matter how small, should be very gratifying to settlers. On the main road to Aria the contract for the metalling of the Wairere hill has been let, also the metalling of the bad sections on the Kumara, Kiekie and Paro ruad. In the Awakino district both in the northern and southern parts similar progress is being made, and a large number of men are employed. The main road between Marokopa via Kiritehtre to Awakino is being pushed forward with all possible speed. The road which is being formed at present will join the Manganui road, establishing a main thoroughfare from Marokopa to Awakino. On the Te Kuiti Awakino road steps are being taken to form a deviation near Tamatamaire Hill, which is certainly will be an improvement long desired by settlers, and a pleasing fact to anybody who has had a trip over that hill. In Mr Williams this district is fortunate in possessing an engineer with auch a wide range of experience. He as only been a short period in the district, and if he is to be judged in the future by his actions in the short time has been in the district, then settlers have a man whom they can rely on to carry out a progressive policy especially in the outlying and sparsely settled districts,