ROADS OF THE NORTH.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 19 April 1917, Page 3

ROADS OF THE NORTH.

AN EXPERT'S CRITICISM. LESSONS FOR WAIT EM ATA. THE engineer of the Waitemata County Council, Mr G. Jackson, accompanied the ParliamentaryParty through the Northern Counties, and has submitted to his Council a report reviewing j the methods pursued in the dis- i tricts traversed. Summing up his observations, Mr Jackson says: — After travelling the roads in the North, with their long easy winding grades, one is conyinced of the error of steepening grades to shorten routes and straighten j roads. We have far too many i steep grades and switchbacks in Waitemata County, and I am sorry to say we are making errors in this direction even now. When we make a new road, or a deviation of an existing road, we allow other considerations to influence its location other than what should be the only consideration of making the road in the best possible place. If the Council would realise this evil and grapple with it, the cost of the Parliamentary Tour, as far Waitemata is concerned, would ! be well repaid. The next object lesson is to make the best possible use of local materials, and when local gravel, limestone, or sandstone is available, use it in preference to bringing more expensive material from a great distance, but where a soft material is used it must be constantly repaired by putting on more as ruts occur. The third lesson is brought home to one by the Northern people's shortcomings, and that is, having once got a road, either clay or metalled, stick to it at all costs and keep it in repair, but do not employ inexperienced men, either by contract or day labour, to supervise work. In my opinion there is nothing North worth copying in administration; we do things better down here.

We have a far greater proportion of poor land than any of the Northern counties, and we have practically no metal within the county, while they have an abundant supply ; but our roads compare more than favourably with theirs, "There are," Mr Jackson also remarks, " large bridges in the North, all built of wood, and some of them of very primitive "design, These bridges are the only temporary work to be seen on the roads, and it seems a pity that concrete was not used in many instances when good shingle is obtainable on the spot. I only passed over two concrete bridges outside the Waitemata County on the whole tour. I saw two more in course of | erection. These wooden bridges j will be a heavy burden in the near future, for repairs and renewals. It struck me that the North does not require roads so much as a proper system of maintenanoe of the roads they have. It may be that they cannot afford to look after them, being hampered by large tracts of native and other land from which it is impossible to collect rates, but from the information I was able to gather, the people of the North seem to be very reluctant to rate themselves,"