SETTLERS ISOLATED

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1076, 13 September 1930, Page 10

SETTLERS ISOLATED

ALBANY ROAD BLOCKAGE HAS SERIOUS RESULTS 1 APPEAL TO MR. COATES So serious to settlers and business people is the present hold-up on the Albany - Birkenhead main highway, that residents in the districts affected are becoming j alarmed. A committee of settlers has dispatched to the Right Hon. J. G. Coates a telegram appeal- j ing for urgent assistance. The position is that for several! ■weeks past this road, which constitutes the oulj' useable outlet from the j Albany district for farmers, fruit-1 growers, market gardeners, and busi-1 uess people who travel daily to the j city via Birkenhead, has been com-j pletely blocked. Experimental concreting work is i being carried out by the Waitemataj County Council, under the supervision j of the engineer, Mr. Andrew Murray. Ordinarily road concreting is done ! in strips, and traffic is not inconveni- 1 ©need to any serious extent. This i road, however, is being concreted en i masse. ENGINEERS PROMISE •‘The result is that settlers are | trapped and isolated,’’ a resident told! The Sun this morning. “When the scheme was projected, j Mr. Murray promised to provide trac.- I tors to haul through necessary supplies. but these have not been forth- \ coming. “With the exception of the concreted strip which forms a barrier on the \ highway across which vehicles are ! not allowed to pass, the surface is in j h terrible condition —just like por-. ridge. “Near the sect ion at present being ; treated is a fairly long deviation, but j it consists of a clay road, and is prac- j tic&liy. if not completely, impassable. , “If the concreting was being done in strips ail would be well. I blit the council is insisting upon ?n experiment in roading that is proving a serious inconvenience, and may prove disastrous. “It will be another month at least before the road is open, and by that, time the plight of settlers who are unable to get their supplies to the market may be imagined.” PLIGHT OF RESIDENTS The Sun’s informant told of the experience of travellers from Albany to Auckland only this morning. After entering the service ear at the Albany end, they found that, to add to exist- I ing difficulties, a large portable iron I shed had been dumped on the middle ! of the road. The car could not pass, and it -was necessary to transfer to a bus on the ; other side of the shed. “This,” said a passenger, “is just j an example of the inconvenience to i private individuals who wish to travel j into town. Settlers with their pro- j duce simply cannot .get through, and j torekeepers are in a similar plight.” ! Another resident of the district, j and a representative of the settlers’ j committee, informed The Sun that a' Telegram had been dispatched to Mr. ; Crates with the object of obtaining 1 relief. IS IT LEGAL? “We are hemmed in and isolated,” i lie said. “What we want to know is j whether it is legal for the council to ■ block the road completely, leaving the j settlers completely isolated.” The Birkenhead Borough Council has been interesting itself in the posi-, tion, and efforts are being made in several quarters to obtain relief. “Mr. Murray promised that he would j do something to make passable the deviation,” said a third resident. “He j was going to send a gang of men to j cut ti-tree and lay it on the soft clay, t but nothing has been done. MR. MURRAY’S ATTITUDE It is possible to carry out the work: in two half-strips, but we are not \ going to do it that way.” This was the comment with which the Waitemata County engineer. Mr. I A. Murray, countered a query by a Sun reporter whether one half of the proposed concrete carriage-way could not first be completed and thrown open to traffic, before the paving of the other side of the road was commenced. His remark was made during on interview last month when the first j complaints were made. The officer was asked the necessity of adopting this method of paving j this arterial road when the general practice in paving main highways ! was to comp I te one side and then the j other, thus keeping the route open ; for traffic during the work. Mr. Murray said: “We have al- ; ready tried putting down concrete in j two half-strips and encountered con-! siderable difficulty in rolling the! halves before putting in the sand and } cement.” The contractor antici-' pated completing the work in three j weeks, he said, and the paving would { require at least another three weeks i to set. When the difficulties of people liv- j ing on properties abutting on to the \ section of road to be closed were men-' tioned, particularly their being com-j pelled to walk distances from a mile to two miles to catch service cars, the engineer stated they would have to put up with the inconvenience for a short time.