THE FINEST ROADMAKER IN THE WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 October 1919, Page 12

THE FINEST ROADMAKER IN THE WORLD.

London, July 31. "When Sir Eric fleddes declared in Ui« House of Commons that BrigudicrOeneral Sir Henry Maybury, who is to be head of the Roads' Department of the new Transport Ministry, is 't lie finest roadmakcr in tlie world,"' he made a statement with vrhieh every soldier who served in France will agree," savs the Daily Mail. '•1 was talking: yesterday to a man who did three, and a half years in France and Flanders, and his verdict was even more emphatic than that of the future Transport, Minister. 'Maybury is the living contradiction of the word "impossible,"' he said.

"A man does not easily get a reputation of that kind, especially in the presence of the pitiless necessities of war. But Brigadier-General Maybury has the habit of provoking enthusiasm from the coldest and sternest judges. Not only did he get the good roads made i'n France, but he 'always got them made in time. Maybury and his roads were always on the spot when they were wanted.

"He seemed to delight in obstacles. Whether it was a matter of making a way across a shell-torn, water-logged plain, or of solving the problem of''an awkward gradient it was all one to him. Sir Douglas Ilaig wanted roads, and Maybury supplied them, promptly and of the very best quality. "Henry Percy Maybury is" S3. Fifteen years ago he was appointed County Surveyor of Kent. In |.<i]2 he was anxious to apply for the position of surveyor to the London County Council, but the Kent people wanted him so badly that they promptly increased his salary from £IOOO to £ISOO a year. But he only remained with thern another year, for the Koad Board claimed him.

"When Sir Erie Geddes went to Franco to organise die transport behind the lines. Mr. Maybury was given the rank of brigadier-general, put in command of an army of workers, and set to work. And now, having achieved triumph and won for himself a K.C.M.G., he is ready tp start an even bigger job. "When he left thef service of Kent the main roads of the county wore held to be the best in England fur modern trallic. If you know such (|i K . stretches as the road from Ash ford to Hastings, or the way from Canterbury to Dover, you will realise what Sir Henry Mayhury can do. Ami if you knew these- 'road's as 1 did twenty years ago your appreciation of him will be (ill the keener.

"He is one of the men who keep nut oE sight and get on with their job. Fame has come to him tttte-r-ly unsought, lie is the true master craftsman whose whole delight, is In his work and who finds in the. due performance of his task the ontiroly adequate reward."