TOWN IMPROVEMENTS.

Kawhia Settler and Raglan Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 254, 13 April 1906, Page 2

TOWN IMPROVEMENTS.

The work of levelling Jervois street ie now being carried out and should make a decided improvement, if not in i reality, at least in the appearance ot I our little town. Many are the methods I spoken of to protect the filling necessary to raise the road to a suitable level and we cannot speak authoritatively of the mode to be decided on possibly.it te not definitely settled. It is rumoured, however, that timber is to ba employed ; a stone embankment will undoubtedly be much beyond the m >ney allocated, but of a surety it would be the best. The filling at the highest point (opposite the post office) will be about six feat. The tide occasionally Hows under that building, so that it may ba reckoned that the average Yise up the protection will be about four feet, and at some spring tides possibly five to six feet, the disUnce across the filling which will bo affected by the tide being at least four chains, To mike a timber protection it would be necessary to have it fairly substantial and the amount of timber required will—if 2in. planking is used (less would be abiurd), and if the stiunchions and stays be 6 x 2 (almost too light)—amount to not less than ioOOft., which at say 17s per 100 ft., including cost of erecUjti, would amount to £BB os, which is a low estimate. But th 3 question arises : would a wooden protec.ion, unless caulked, prevent the wash from gradually silt ing the soil away ? We opine not, and all previous experience shows this At this would only be a temporary erection, and if temporary erections are all that can bo put up, why not go in*for a cheaper form than boards. In rhany parts of New Zealand and Australiia where roads, etc., have to be .tccted, and where money is scarce, the moit satistaotory way of doing this- h with a double wattle fence, which generally coots from 12s to 201 a chain, and a-? tbo am rant of fencing required here would be at the out-ddo 12 chains this would eutail an outlay of about £l2. Wo are informed that, in the old days bore the tide use! not t > c nne up io many pLces neirly to as it does now, and the remains of the ii tree fimcas that kept it back may bo soon to day. When these fences wet? removed of course the surface washed away and the tide encroached. Buil lings are now standing on ground jlhat in former times were twice daily

BS by . the ti.lo. iba rwwn .W> oasaa being more trivial thani a fence. Besides, it tb>s do“ bls loace were placed well o«, say 7rma the corner ot Mr Falwessers office to about the telegraph post M.ycnd Mrs Kay's house, the whole of that little bay would gradually silt up, and the tide would do more than a ,1-sen raeo. There are hundreds 01 acres of ti-tree available tor wattling, 'and as no metal in tbs shape of . Lils or wits is-required the construe- ■ > nß .Wild eland as long, if H »ro n,ed - 4 ? profess to be engineers, but experience tovHUttous parts of the cjL’HICS nas proved to us that common sense is sometimes not to be despised. vern