County Council and Roads.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 1, Issue 41, 5 November 1912, Page 1

County Council and Roads.

[TO THE EDITOR.] Sir,— Seeing, through the agency of your valuable paper, reports of the meetings of the Franklin County Council, I fake ibis opportunity, as it seems to me the best time for the purpose—seeing that the Council has not taken any work upon themselves as yet, but have merely passed through the initial stages-to make a few remarks in the interests of the ratepayers in the whole of the districts over which the Council presides. No doubt about it, we must congratulate ourselves upon the election of such capable men, men with txperience—in some cases years of it with road work. But 1 sincerely hope that they are not going to be content with a slip-flhod pulicy of road-making, such as some of the leal boards have been satisfied with; but will launch out in an up-to-date manner and solve the problem which has kept some of the oldest settlers in the mud for the last 50 years. I noticed in the press some little time ago where up the Waikato the Council had co-operated with the Road Boards and had procured a good quarry and were to put a tramline in and work the thing cheaply and systematically. The same thing has taken place near Ie Aroha, only it is private enterprise that has undertaken the work of breaking and delivery. Such a scheme presents itself at the prpset time to the Franklin County Council co-operation with the Road Boards in the supply of metal or a large scale. The Digger the scheme the cheaper the metal. I 'understand Lhit t.nc KascPukekohe Road Board rcrcrt:,- I;-*, a contract for 2i inch /nets' «t «S 6d per J, ♦V.-. • the Pni nraw xioard is paying ahout r.iie S'tmt;. W, this ' *->r nurely breakirr arting, ? * adiiiv an<i I/.. added, '. ....£ UibaSß li.at nit nina! COStS from 12s to 15? a yaiH or. the mad. I ask any fair-ininded u.an, Can the ratepayers expect g'>od iobu-i with metal at this price? Why, it is prohibitive altogether. Having had considerable experience in road-formation under the Government, being at one time assistant to the road engineer in Taranaki and having 12 years' mining ex-! porience, I think when it comes to talk of stone I can profess to know h little about it. Some of our older fr-unds think there is only one metal, Rnci that is blue rock, to be found mostly in this district in the various voicanic blows, and for which they have for years past been content to pay from 5s to 8s 6d a yard. Blue metal is the worst binding metaljthere is; that is the real blue and fine-grained stone. A steep hill is the place to find the binding qualities of any kind of stone. The greyer stone ia mostly coarser and softer and binds better. I write this not codemning the blue metal altogether by any means, but simply as a comparison to what

I consider the best and cheapest metal for road formation that I have ever seen, and which is within reach of the County Council, being quite close to Drury. This metal is a slate rock, slightly decomposed. At one time previous to volcanic disturbances this rock lay in a solid bed, but with the upheavel became beady and jointy, which makes it easily broken out. This quarry, for quarry 1 call it, bad something like 800 yards taken from it to ballast a privately-owned railway line, is over 200 feet high, and while the line was being ballasted two men with picks kept five drays going with ease, and the drays had only about three-quarters of a mile to go at the most and were filled out of a roughly constructed hopper at the face. This metal requires no breaking and ia quite hard enough for any road, giving a smooth surface. This piivate line runs to within about three-quarters of a mile of the quarry, and I understand the owners are anxious to put a broad guage line into their works. What a rare chance opens itself up if the Franklin County Council, the local bodies and the owners of this line could come to some arrangement, for I am confident by the extension of this line to the quarry the metal could be delivered at Drury station for 3s a yard or evpn less. What a boon this would be for the surrounding districts from 3ucklar.d to Papatoetoe; to say nothing of outside places for there is the demand. Although advocating this quarry, 1 am in no way interested either in the property on which it is or in the line, but 1 am writing solely in the interests of the ratepayers throughout Franklin. Several members of local bodies who have been to see the stone speak in glowing terms of it, but all agree that it wants J,to be worked on a large scale.

I Hoping that I have not taken too much of your valuable space, 1 am, etc. ADVANCE FRANKLIN. Rama Rama. Our correspondent encloses a newspaper cutting which declares the Manukau County roads to be tbe "worst in the Dominion." As Franklin County was at the time of this declaration part of the Manukau Count]', we presume that the strictures apply to this locality. Anent this comment a circus proprietor who recently "dfd" this district proclaimed our roads to be "the vilest in the world." The clipping sent us says:—"The settlers of the Manukau County are hoping that change from the old road board system to the county system of control may result in the district having acme reads woitiiy of the name." "A well-known settler in the district infi rmed a leporter tnat the Manukau County, although settled for son.e 60 years, has gained the unenviable reputation of having perhaps the very worst roads in the whole of New Zealand with the exception of the back clocks districts. "There was en ample supply of good road metal to be obtained, he said, so that the had state qf the reads must be attributed to the defects of the system of local government by a number of small, inefficient bodies. On most of the main roads a considerable sum of money has been spent in metalling, but owing to the ineffectual way in which this has been done the roads are of little value. Half the metal in the water-tables at the side of roads, and seldom in any ni w work undertaken is there any attempt to make a crown to the roads, so that tbe water can be carried off. "Having dumpsd down a quantity of metal, generally at the wrong season of the year, the boards have rested, apparently well satisfied that nothing further would be required for 10 or 12 The result has been that deep ruts have' formed, which have never been filled and the unfortunate settler buaps over an extremely rough and uneven surface in fine weather, while in wet weather his vehicle sinks into deep sloughs, from which it is often extricated with difficulty. "The trouble seems to be, he contiDued„-that ro"d contracts have , been unde/taken without expert supervision. Then, again, the worK

having been do:e, to surfacemen have been appointed to see that the roads were kept in scmething like order. 'The fact is,' he concluded, 'that none of the boards have been able to afford such luxuries as engineers and surfacemen, and it is hoped that with tha introduction of the county system of control a new order of things will be instituted in respect to the roads, which will remove the disgraceful reputation they have gained.' "