ROAD MAKING.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 May 1919, Page 4

ROAD MAKING.

The Taranaki County Council decided on Wednesday to tar-seal its main roads. The scheme approved is a comprehensive one, providing for over sixty miles of road, the cost being estimated at £60,000. The Council is to be congratulated upon its decision. The day is gone by when ordinary macadam roads will do for motor traffic, at any rate in Taranaki. Taranaki County has maintained its roads, speaking generally, in very good order, but ihe last year or two has shown that the old system is unequal to the new demands and too costly. Tarsealing is no experiment, for the roads in the Elthaln, Waimate and Hawera districts aro nearly all tar-sealed, and proving eminently successful. The first cost is heavy, but the money is saved in cheaper haulage and in wear and tear, and less maintenance charges. Egmont County Council is also giving attention to road improvement, the engineer having prepared estimates of the cost of tarsealing the main roads. The Stafford Council is laying down all its principal roads similarly and there is a proposal afoot to extend the tar-sealing to the subsidiary roads. In a few years, therefore, we may expect to see every main road in Taranaki tar-sealed. Good transit facilities are the very life blood of a district, and one of the greatest factors in its progress, and there is no doubt ithat Taranaki is acting wisely in extending the tar-sealing. The wonder is that :the Councils referred to, having first-hand knowledge of the good results of the roads in South Taranaki, have hesitated so long about adopting what is really the only effectual system within their reach. The day of the macadam road in Taranaki has gone. The motor has rendered it obsolete.