CONCRETE ON THE ROADS.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 8 March 1917, Page 3

CONCRETE ON THE ROADS.

CONCRETE FOR BRIDGES.

Full Particulars of a Moat Welcome Innovation, as supplied in a Pamphlet issued byWilson's Portland Cement Co. Auckland. (Continued from week to week.) HOW CAN WE BUILD CONCRETE ROADS IN NEW ZEALAND ? We should organise a good roads movement that will sweep from one end of the country to the other, and that will make our Government wake up to the necessity of doing something to place our system of road making on a sound and sane basis. One of the first things required is permanent culverts and bridges, next the fixing of maximum grades. Every new road made in the backblocks andeveiy road improved temporarily should be done in accordance with a system working with one aim in view. We recognise that temporary roads must be built for many years to come, but every road made should be graded, and surface and sub-drained according to a standard plan; every culvert and bridge should be permanent, and every penny spent on any road work should be spent with one essential foundation and definite end in view—that is, a permanent hard road.

At present money is being spent in the temporary patching of roads, bridges, and culverts that bring no lasting benefit. It should be possible to correct this state of affairs by reorganising our system. Before this will be done a determined move on the part of the public is necessary. After all, everything depends upon the people. We generally get about as much as we deserve, and the state of our roads throughout the country at present indicates pretty clearly that we have allowed things to drift.

We have been so long accustomed to muddling along in our present happy-go-lucky manner that we think there is no other way of doing it—that it would be too costly to attempt an energetic good roads campaign. We can't afford it 1 That's the cry one hears on every hand.

, One of the speakers at the Chicago National Conference on Concrete Road Building, Mr O. H. Dunlap, a farmer from lowa, and President of- the lowa State Supervisors' Association, in the course of his remarks made some very terse comments on this subject, from whic,h. we quote the following passages : —

When we look back over the past, we see that the luxuries of o,nly a few years a§oi a,?e a.hsolute necessities |o-c}ay. Twenty-five years ago if you had asked me, " Will the farmers ha.ye a daily mail f I wquW ha.ye answered v No t M And yet tp.day they not only have their daily mail brought to their doors, but groceries and dry goods as well. Twenty years ago if you I^4 asked me, '' Can the father- Qver own and majn.ia.in a telephone system f l again I would have said "No "; but to day we find practically every farmer has a. 'phone in his house. £\X\d x coming down a, l\tt}a nearer-, if ten years ago, you had asked fti©, " Will the. farm,er ey-e,% k&, able to own and ys§ $** automobile?" again X rwo.uld haye answered " No," and adde.^ " Sfane hut the wealthy vtfO)U,l4 j hut to-day we fi(nd -'thftt, in low^ there is an auto fqp every thirty-three people, and if the anticipations of the dealers are realised, they will make it unanimous in the near future.

And of aJU iil^aaes of men who couid^ ]ft?LSt afford to give up tliese once luxuries, but now necessities, the farmer is the last. May we not then expect, what wastrue of the 'phone and the auto, will also be true of the permanent roads ? And when they have become a reality, the farmer will be the least willing to give them up.

Another thing I have noticed is, we get things pretty much as we need them, ai\4 the very fact that a,TQ gathered here in a National Conference is evidence in itself that the cry for better roads is n.ation--wi^e A [No. 15.