TARANAKI LEADS

Taranaki Daily News, 29 May 1920, Page 12

TARANAKI LEADS

GOOD ROADS AND 'BUSES. As good roads are making Taranaki, so motor 'buses arc going to make New Plymouth (says the Manawatu Times). 1 A party of Palmcrstoniaiis went through 1 to New Plymouth last week-end lo 'nave 1 a look at the roads and to try out the 'buses. The Tnranaki roads are certainly an eye-opener. Once, and not so very long ago, they were a by-word and a terror to overland travellers. Now, for very long stretches, some of them are dustless and splendidly smooth for vehicular traffic. And what one county has discovered the others are quick to emulate. GOOD ROADS PAY. The ir.ain discovery is that good roads pay. They attract travellers, and travellers bring trade and leave money. More than that, a properly constructed road, with a tarred surface, cuts down the repair bills- With fast motor traffic bad roads break tip, the rain comes, pot holes form and prow, the water takes charge, loose metal is thrown on, the cars scatter it, and so it goes on. Maintenance eats up a terrible lot of money on jerry-built thoroughfares, especially in localities where the landscape in punctuated with hills and valleys, as is tho case in the long stretch between Palmerston and the Taranaki capital. NECESSITY THE MOTHER. The Taranaki county councils faced the situation more quickly than their southern contemporaries, simply because they had to. Metal is not so accessible there as here, and lias to be carried over longer stretches. Jn other words, metal is a scarce commodity in Taranaki, and must not be wasted. Therefore the traveller notices that wherever metal exists—in the. creek beds principally—the local bodies have established metal crushers. Here the boulders are treated and broken to requirements, to enable the road beds to be built, up 011 scientific principles from the ground floor up, as it were. This is not the place for exact details, but when tho roads are finis-bed they are the real thing for permanence and for comfort, and we have nothing like them—nothing nearly as good—in this part of the country. The natural result is that to encourage motor traffic, not only that of motor-cars, but of tractors of many kinds, and of motor 'buses. . WHAT 'BUSES ARE DOING. This brings us: to a point w'-ich it is particularly desirable to stress. Initiative and foresight breed enterprise and long sight. Private enterprise has been quick to follow up the good roads movement, and even to get ahead of it. Tims in New Plymouth .to-day we see motor 'buses infinitely superior to anything of the kind in this locality. They are built for speed and for comfort- They do not hang about the town and compete with the tram-cars, but they speed away into the country and bring in the settlers day after day to do their shopping in the metropolis There is one 'bus which runs out to Uremii via Waitara, up hill and down dale for IS miles. It seats 30 passengers comfortably, and 40 and more at a pinch, with all their luggage on top. It runs on huge pneumatic tyres, and is a giant in every way. Yet it. is beautifully sprung, comfortable as the best motorcar, and when at full career runs at a 1 high speed, and makes an impressive picture. Then there is an IS passenger car s which runs in and out to Opunake, ' nearly 30 miles distant, and a similar 1 vehicle which journeys to Inglewood 1 twice daily, all carrying passengers and ) goods, and serving all classes of the ■ community. There are services to other points as well. These vehicles rarely carry only fresh air. They are astonishingly full, and in a trial of speed over ! the hills they leave the ordinary five- . passenger Ford panting in the rear. They [ pay, of course —because private enter- [ prise is not a philanthropist—and New Plymouth is a direct beneficiary. Our business men should go up to New P!y- ---\ mouth and see these 'buses and the , Taranaki roads. They are an eye-opener ! as to the manner in which Taranaki is , advancing, and the Manawatu is—- !. standing still.