NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, June 3. 1854.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 922, 3 June 1854, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Saturday, June 3. 1854.

The present disgraceful, almost impassable state of the Beach Road, particularly that part extending from Kumutoto to the Crown and Anchor is, to use a trite expression, the town's tali. When

things are at the worst it is said they sometimes mend, and if there be any truth in the saying-, the present state of the Beach Road might give some hope of amendment since it is scarcely possible for it to be in a worse condition. The carters as they come from the country are perfectly astonished to find the very worst piece of road they have to travel over is in the centre of the town i while the inhabitants of "Wellington, knowing how constantly ori, principle the party whose duty it now is to repair the Beach Road, have ever resisted any attempts made by the former Government to put it in an effective state of repair, conclude that 'Oil principle the Provincial Executive have adopted the Beach mud as a part of their system. Independent of the serious discomfort and annoyance which the nuisance complained of occasions, it must needs operate very prejudicially in a variety of ways; and we can hardly conceive anything which could give a more unfavorable impression to a stranger on his first arrival here than the present state of the Beach Road would be likely to produce. Of course any attempt to mend it now — in mid-winter — would be out of the question, it would only be so much money thrown away ; so we must be content to struggle on through the winter and through the mud as well as we can. It is agreed on all hands that the first step to put the Beach Road in an effective slate of repair must be to widen the narrowest part, where now there is not room for two carts to pass, to a width of fifty feet, so "as to provide for the constantly increasing traffic. How is this to be done ? In that part along Lainbton-quay, reclaimed from the sea, a wooden breastwork was erected; in widening the part of the beach road to which we allude it is said that it is proposed instead of using wood to build a brick retaining wall. For such a purpose a brick wall, — even supposing the materials the very best possible, — would from its very nature be peculiarly unfit, but it must be generally, evident that the briclis usually made in Wellington do not exactly answer to this description, and are not calculated to resist for any length of time the action of the sea., But why are bricks to be used at all ? Which would be the best, ''the cheapest, the most durable wall for this purpose it would not be difficult to determine ; in fact the question has already been practically decided in the most satisfactory manner. Let any one take the trouble to walk to Kaiwarra and see how well the rough stone wall built there by the troops has answered the purpose, and he would only wonder what special reason thereto moving them could possibly induce the present authorities (if the report we have referred to be really true) to build a brick wall to run their heads against. But though for the -present the beach road must, we fear, remain as it is, there is no reason why that part of Willisstreet from Te Aro Church to Lambtonquay should not be made passable. This would be no very great undertaking, and if the services of 80 or 100 men of the 66th Regiment are to be placed at the disposal of the Government for roadmaking, this is one of the works in which they might during the winter be most profitably engaged.