CORRESPONDENCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3584, 8 January 1927, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

(To The Editor). Sir, —’In your issue of Thursday last, appears a letter signed by “Motorist and Ratepayer.” I cannot agree with his comments therein, because his travels appear mainly to be on the Foxton-Palmerston road. I write as one who, this week alone, has Covered close on five hundred miles of road between Fox ton and Auckland, also the main roads of the Bay of Plenty and for the 2>alm for rotten roads, I would bestow it on the Auckland and Te Awamutu route. From there onwards, to the borders of the Wanganui district, the roads are magnificent. Onwards to the Rangitikci County they are a bit rough, but the worst from Wanganui are the Manawatu County roads. Sandon to - Foxton are better. I write as one who has travelled over the main and central roads of the northern parts as well as the east and west coast roads. The worst roads I know of are those from Te Puke to Tauranga (where fourteen cars were bogged on ’Xmas Eve in a distance of about twenty miles) and between Tauranga. and Waihi and Tauranga and Matamata, where road metal is scarce. “Mortorist and Ratepayer’s” opinion that County Councils should be abolished is one I disagree with as he has lost, sight of the fact that a Highways Board now controls the main roads, whilst the branch roads only are in the hands of the different County Councils. That he has not travelled far is very apparent, 01' he would have been able to see the result to date of the efforts of the Highways Board and give credit where credit is due. Take the Taranaki Province, the best roads in New Zealand, asphalt and concrete, but don’t forget it was the ratepayers of that County who squealled the most at paying for them. One has to travel widely to be able to pass an unbiased opinion and I would recommend “Motorist and Ratepayer” to •appreciate that fact. Also, that a great deal of unfair criticism comes from those who try to wring sixty miles per hour out of a twenty mile per hour car, as well as those who could not help running into every hole in a road, even if fenced round. In conclusion I would state here in regard to “motor hogging” that the worst offenders I came across during my travels were the lady drivers, who will not budge a single inch from the road to let another car pass, simply because they lack .nerve to leave the crown of the road. At Pukino I gased upon the wreckage of about twelve hundred pounds Worth of cars, that, despite warning notices to those about to take 'a bend on a hill, had met head on. A cheaper car was also lying bottom up in a creek at the foot of a hill, approached round a. bend, the result of high speeding. It had crashed through the rails of the bridge despite warning notices. I really think licenses are too easily earned, merely a test on the Hat and no test on a dangerous road. Perhaps 1 should suggest a length of road as obtaining after leaving Auckland, as a testing ground for some. Thanking you, sir, Yours etc. ÜBIQUE.