THE MOUNTAIN ROAD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 123, 11 October 1912, Page 4

THE MOUNTAIN ROAD.

®n Saturday our evening contemporary called attention, editorially, to "the sad jrtate of disrepair" of a, portion of the road from Egmont .Village to the Mountain House, stating that unless vigorous measures were adopted the road, was likely to be impassable for ordinary traffic. On Monday, the Herald, in its local column, said: "That the road is not in such a dreadful state is proved by the j fact of about a score of motor-cars which essayed the trip on Friday, all except four reached the house." In its issue of last evening, in reply to a cor-' respondent who took the paper to task for saying the road was "not in such a dreadful state," and who conclusively showed the contrary to be the case, the Herald told how quickly the trip was made by some of the cars on Friday as "positive proof that the road was not in such a dreadful state as it was represented to be." If this contention is correct, then its editorial reference of Saturday to the "sad state of- disrepair" of the road was not justified. We leave the Herald to explain the inconsistency, but beg leave to endorse what it first said about the state of the road, which was disgraceful to those concerned, and unfit for motor traffic. The bad patch was certainly not extensive, but quite sufficient to put one car out of action, to so strain another that it broke down a few miles further on, to prevent another car from proceeding further than the first few holes, and to hold up for not a little time an empty car sent to rescue the occupants of one of the disabled cars. To negotiate this piece of.bad road, in the condition it was on Friday, was to ask a good deal of even the stoutest built and most heavily-engined car, as well as putting a severe strain on the drivers, and that so many cars did get through was surprising to those who knew the condition of the road. The pity is that the inconvenience, strain and risk could have been avoided so easily by the Road Board expending a few pounds on metal; and what made matters worse was the fact that the cost had been guaranteed by the Mountain House Committee. We are informed the j patching work has now been done, and the journey can, therefore, be made in safety and'comfort. But to argue now that the road on Friday was not in a very bad state is, in the light of facts, quite ridiculous; and why the Herald persists in its ostrich-like attitude is beyond our comprehension.