OUR HIGHWAYS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XI, Issue 657, 23 February 1859, Page 5

OUR HIGHWAYS.

To the Editor of the Lytteltori Times. Sin,—Although I am going to utter a truism, I still hope that your good nature will find room for the axiom that " good roads are a comfort to all that use them." In this province there certainly appears to be no lack of attention to the matter, and from the levelness of the country and the great quantity of material very well situated,' at least so far as the neighbourhood of Christchurch. is concerned, there is great facility for directingthat attention to good advantage. I was induced to think upon this question by a communication inserted in your paper of the 2nd instant, and signed 'Traveller.' But I am compelled to say that what experience I have personally had, and what I have seen, heard and read upon the subject, cause me to differ with ' Traveller' as to " the whole breadthof nearly a chain on the main lines being imperatively required, for the roadway;" that is, if I understand him rightly, that a width of sixtysix feet should be formed and metalled, and of course kept in repair. Surely ' Traveller' can never have put pen to paper to calculate the expense, nor considered how much traffic there really is passing upon these said main lines. Not long since an enumeration was made by the direction of the authorities upon the Suniner or Ferry Eoad—the most frequented, on a Saturday— certainly the most busy day. of the week—and the result was a passage of about 70 drays and carts, and of between 70 and 80 horsemen in the whole day, both ways included. This gives an average of about three anda-half drays and carts, and the same of horsemen, in the hour, each way, throao-h----out the. usual working day of 10 hours, equaf to. oneeach way every 17 minutes. The proposed 60 foot road would give sufficient room for at least eight carts or sixteen horsemen abreast. It is not necessary to follow this part of the question any further. ' Traveller, Mike many of us who take to scribbling, had not thought on the subject before he began to write about it.. As the letter of 'Traveller' has occasioned my addressing you on the subject of road making, I am inclined to ask permission for saying a few more words on the subject. I assure the responsibles in this matter that I write merely as an amateur, fancying; that there are many who travel on these roads that have never given much attention to the manner in which they are made or kept in" repair. -I may be! allowed to add, however, that I havein my day been a responsible in this said road forming and repairing matter. 'Traveller' speaks of the whole breadth of the land between the ditches being required for the cart-way. Rather an inconvenient scheme this for

the foot passengers, and particularly ungallant towards the female portion of them. What lady would display a well-formed ancle and handsome foot for the gratuitous admiration of the passengers at the risk of having: both shoes -and stockfngs spattered all over with sludge by the first thoughtless horseman that might pass on the miry cartroad ? Or, having given all the needful time, and perhaps a little more, to the disposing .of her dress and bonnet with the neatness and elegance best adapted to set off to proper advantage a pretty face and symmetrical figure, hazard the having the gloss of the beauty both of face and 'dross entirely obliterated by a volume of dust raised.by a scrambling, galloping, two-horse cart from the sandy-desert-like way.

Now, so .far from sixty feet of mofcaUed road being necessary for the passage of all the traffic on the most populous road out of Christchurch, twenty-four feet, or at the utmost thirty feet, properly made, will carry that traffic for generations to come. The only road where a greater width

would bo required in a not voiy long period of ■time, is the-Perry »'oad. But -hero, inno very long timo, wo must have; a railway, coining from the .port to the city through,the hill. Then, supposing this thirty foot properly "metalled, ami five feet thence on each side'to the water tables'.or road drains, we shall have ten feet on eaclvaido for footpath. Between those footpaths and the banks or rails, or other sides of the road space, we have now ditches cut certainly in a queer form, and in such a manner as neither MoAdam nor any commissioner of a common enclosure in England ever contemplated could be executed through a new lino of country. It is strange that in no enclosure of waste lands that has taken place in England in the present century has the ditch been allowed to be made on the road side of the fence—in the fens only excepted, where there is no bank. But everywhere in the colony of New Zealand the contrary appears to be the rule, even where the fall or inclination of the land imperatively requires the ditch to be on the land side. But as we have the ditches where they are, why they must be made of sufficient, depth, to carry off the water, and also to drain the water from under the road. It is requisite that the r subsoil of the road should be kept as dry as possible, because it is on all hands allowed that this said subsoil has .to. carry the road and all its traffic, and that the road should be so formed—that is, so compact—that the least possible quantity of water should percolate through it into the subsoil. Of this, however, we will speak hereafter. . „.. To return to the footpaths, they should be levelled - from end to end, and when,it can be afforded—at least, near the towns, where they should be rendered as pleasant as possible to entice pedestrians of both sexes to exercise themselves—they should be covered with fine shingly clean stones or screened gravel. For the carrying off of the surface water received by the water tables, covered drains will be required from place to place under the footpaths; this being for some years restricted to the vicinity of the towns. But the form of the high road itself" requires the same attention everywhere. In England a rise of three inches in the crown of a metalled road 24 feet wide is considered to be sufficient, and^ is so with good materials ; but we may allow six inches for the elevation of the crown of a 24 or 30 feet wide metalled road above its sides. This will probably appear to be giving a very flat'surface to the road, and it is not at all intended to advocate a rounded form for various reasons. First, when the road is rounded, carriages cannot conveniently travel but upon the top,'particularly if conveying bulky loads ; thus inevitably forming ruts and at once destroying the road. Next, when carriages travel on the sides of rounded, roads the lower wheel is. constantly acting as a lever of the most powerful order to displace the stones and destroy the arch, which in a good road is in reality the road itself- . From this cause, no road that is rounded in its form can possibly stand, even'if the convenience of conducting their vehicles did not induce drivers to make ruts on the top and thus perhaps come to the same end by a more rapid process.

But I shall be told that the road should be well rounded to. carry off the water. . To which I answer, that where there is. but a small longitudinal descent, the observation of a moment after rain will demonstrate' that the principal part of the water passes in the line of the road, or rather diagonally upon : a very long- parallelogram. \'°Bufc I must call the objectors also to remember that the side of a wheel track half an inch deep will retain the water in its progress just as well as a rut half a foot deep; and I would respectfully urge what every road mender and every land cultivator, must know, namely, that the thinnest film of water, (not thicker than a sixpence for instance,) will, if stand-

ing stagnant and remaining bright, rot a road or destroy a crop of corn just as well as if it was forty feet deep ; or perhaps worse, so far as the road it, concerned, as the deep water might act-mechani-cally by its weight in keeping it together,. These. small obstacles to the passing off the waterlaterally are created in much greater quantities upon the rounded than upon the more level formed road by the sideways action of the passing carriages already described. . . '. . ~ '■ '.

Having said so much about form, I would now came to the consideration of the description"of materials used and their preparation, not forgetting altogether their form. I hope here to be forgiven for making an observation upon the materials and the state in which they are now laid upon the, roads. The material, as carted from the pits, is a mixture of stones small and large (all of which hay;e been much waterworn) and mud and veryf fine sand—

the stones probably forming, about a moiety of the mass.1 That is, if this be pretty near the average, the material useful for the formation of the road is only about half the bulk that is filled, carted and spread; and the dirt, useful to prevent the consolidation of the road and to form sludge in wet wea-

ther and dust in dry weather, is the other half. That this is the case I will take the evidence of any one in the habit of passing over our roads. In wet weather the wheels of the carriages sink over the rim of the wheels, and the feet of the horses above their fetlocks, into a puddle of stones, mud, and sand, much resembling some sea-beaches when the tide is coming in.; In dry weather the-road is generally loose pebbles and dust. The stones cannot come into contact so as to form an arch;-being prevented ;by the,earthy matter, nor are the stones or pebbles so. well formed as might be desirable.

To get rid of this extra cartage and the inconvenience occasioned by the sand and mud, it is only necessary to screen the stones at the pits; and this, I am inclined to think, would, dear as labour is, be fully paid for by the saving effected in the cartage, as one load would go as far as two do now. It is a labourthatmayvery wellbedonebycontract; and if a precedent be required, why we have it in England, in many parts of which there never is a load of unscreened gravel laid upon the roads. Bat the roads will last twice as long, and a saving will be effected in that way. This has been proved in other places with which I am acquainted. It is a mere truism to say that every stone lying on a road used by wheeled carriages perpetrates the mischief of causing three holes in the road. From

the form of the stones of which the road material here is composed, the breaking of the larger stones is also desirable, as the angles of the broken stones would give points of support to the other stones in forming the arched surface so desirable in every road. The surface of every well made' road is, it is well known, an ■ arch composed of smallish stones naturally supporting each other; and. carrying the traffic over them. Whoever has happened; to see the surface of such a road after a heavy fain rriust.have observed that it was a sort of mosaic pavement, formed of angular small stones,and. sometimes, where^ the material was flint, of various colours, presenting rather a pretty appearance. . And even in the roads here, more particularly on the Ferry Road, small spots of a foot or two square may occasionally be seen after rain presenting a like appearance. , Now, if the stones were screened before laying' theni on, and allthe larger ones broken' into pieces of about the size of a hen's egg or very little larger, all the roads might be the same, proper care being taken of them while in the process of; consolidation. ' This arch, once formed, is pretty nearly impervious to water, which must flow.off it; and, there-being so. little .ndad

upon the surface, but few impediments are ofl'ercd to its exit. One sight, however, would be pretty well lost to the people of Christehurch : they would no longer have gratis exhibitions of Sahara sandstorms upon every dry windy day. For the keeping of roads in repair when got to such a state, a certain degree of attention will be required} but that is not necessary to be talked about now'; nor are

some things about accommodation roads 'arid' their wide ditches promising to render them impassible, at least to wheel carriages.

;■ This remind* mo.that 'Traveller' says somej thing in his letter about bullock drays on the roads I of Canterbury. It is more than even my strongest ■ imagination can suggest that such things will be 1 seen upon the highways of the province ten years 1 hence. With a breed of horses having some blood i in their veins—from a half to a quarter—dean 1 legged and standing well up to their work—at leant 10 hands high ; and vans properly built with patent axles, &c.; what raom will there be for liullockdrays with their wallowing and rolling from side to side of the road, six or eight of tliem together, their driver cracking his whip and hallooing to the affrighting of all timid folks; and after all crawling along at a snail's pace, with, perchance, two tons weight behind them. But with four horses and a van, such as I have mentioned, the driver sitting in front of his carriage coachman-like, with a load of six or more tons, six or seven miles an hour will be accomplished with ease in thin level country, the roads being well made. The settler then living at the furthest extremity of the province will have no difficulty in getting to the capital with his produce, and home with his requirements. This is on the susposition that railroads would'not pay to be carried into the remoter parts of the province. Two horses of the right sort with a well made van will . take four tons with ease upon really good roads. I did think of saying certain words on accommodation roads, Surnner road, fine facilities for canal navigation throughout much of the province afforded by the Waimakariri, if railways cannot be extensively had, and'so on, —but can only find room to say . I am yours, &c, &c, A NEW-CHUM. February 21, 1859.