CORRESPONDENCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4410, 4 February 1930, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

(To the Editor)

Sir, —As a motorist who has occasion to use the roads within a wide circle of your town, I fully appreciated the letter in a recent issue of the “Herald” signed “Commercial.” Business and pleasure takes me, per motor, over various roads in the Manawatu, ITorowhenun, and Kairanga counties, hut to the Manawatu County I award tho palm if one appreciates a severe jolling. But what strikes me as most peculiar is Ihe fact that in the adjacent counties are bitumen roads, made and making, yet, with the exception of a piece between Bulls and Sanson, the route to Foxton from 'Sanson is a. veritable nightmare. Having made enquiries as to the reason of this neglect, I have yet to have my queries answered. That portion now receiving a coat of bitumen on the Le-vin-Foxton highway was not even started when the Foxton-llimatangi road formation was finished, yet the latter road is being worn out awaiting the pleasure, presumably, of the Highways Board, or is it political punishment, or pull? As regards that portion of the Whirokino road, that is liable to floods, tlie estimate recently published, viz., £200,000 may be the official figure, but it seems to me to be an effort to pull the wool over the eyes of the County Council most concerned, as well as an effort, to make the main highways via the Makarua Plains corning- out somewhere in the vicinity of Taiakataluina. Mark my words well, there is something doing in this locality, and it will take the united efforts of the local bodies on the Levin-Fox-ton-Bnlls route to prevent it. One has only to walk over the sandhills beyond, the Whirokino bridge to realise the huge amount of filing available for the raising of ‘ tho Whirokino road, and at the same time cut out that dangerous hairpin bend beyond the bridge—well named “suicide bend.” To put an embankment over the flooded area presents no engineering difficulties. Where there a swift flowing body of water, then it. may, but my observations during the recent floods is that a number of culverts under the embankment to allow the water to flow through would be sufficient. But to get down to tin tacks, why is this portion allowed to remain as it is year in and year out, seems almost a determined and official attempt. to side-track your town, while calmly collecting a large sum each year from the motorist, without any attempt to provide decent means of ingress and egress to Foxton via this route. To say that this road is an engineering problem, would be but an item in other countries. To my way of thinging, it .seems a question of what is behind (his official do-nothing policy of the Highways Board, or Public Works Department? Thanking you, sir, TRAVELLER.