THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 1910. PETROLEUM FOR ROADS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10039, 13 July 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 1910. PETROLEUM FOR ROADS.

' j Recently the Maaterton County Coun cil wrote to the Public Works Depart irent for information with reference to the practice in vogue in some parts of America of covering the surface j of a road with crude petroleum. A I reply has now been received in which the Engineer-in-Chief supplies the following memorandum on the sub- : ject: "This method has bean tried to a considerable extent with varying degrees of success by several of he municipalities cf the drier parts of America, hamely, Los Angelos, I Monrovia, Ventura, Santa Monica, Pasadena (all i® California)* and El

Paso, in Texas, but the success attending tbe efforts of these people has been very varied, some stating that very little good was obtained compared with the expense, while others maintain tnat the pavement is little inferior to a tar pavement However, I doubt if it will be much good to the Masterton people, as its cost is little, if any, less than a good macadam road, its life no longer, though the maintenance for some years ia very light. It ia only suitable for very light traffic, and in a i dry climate, where there is a reason- | able amount of stone or other hard material in the soil. Where it has been tried on clay alone it has been practically.a failure. Where the climate is wet I do not think it would be at all suitable.'' Theusßofoil sprinkled on roads for the purpose of overcoming the dust nuisance has been tried in various countries, and it has answered the purpose to a certain extent, but the cost has proved too greqt. In the United States it is still in use in certain localities, and chiefly for the benefit of motor car traffic. Reports h<*ve been published from time to time of the success of oil as a dustlayer, and the upkeep of roads, which have been treated with crude petroleum, has been light. The oil is distributed by specially constructed carts on the principle of street watering carta. We have seen lootpaths treated in this manner, but the application had to be renewed in a couple of years. The cost would put it out, of the power of local bodies to treat the miles of roads they control with a dressing of oil especially if it had to be renewed every two or ihree years. The information obtained is valuable as far as it goes; and it might well repay the uounty Council to experiment on some of the bard roads abutting on Masterton.