Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1893. OUR ROADS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIV, Issue 3135, 21 November 1893, Page 2

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1893. OUR ROADS.

If there is anything at all in the "spook" theory, so earnestly advocated by the gifted editor of the " Review cf Reviews"—the shade of John Macadam must entertain the most profound contempt for the people of Canterbury as road makers. The ghost of the man who was looked upon as such a benefactor to the travelling public of Great Britain before the introduction of the iron road that a title was considered an inadequate reward, might be imagined discussing in sarcastic terms with the venerable •• spooks " of the Roman engineers who constructed those famous highways which have excited the admiration of ages, the public tracks which we colonials complacently term roads. Possibly those august entities might be unable to realise—or idealise—the difficulties of road making on shingle plains such as our country consists of. But we fear that even after making all reasonable allowances for the unstable nature of the surfaces to be traversed, and the unsuitableness of the materials to be employed, our roads on the whole fall far short of the standard set up by Macadam nearly a century ago. In this district, the chief difficulty is that almost the only material available for road construction is shingle. Macadam's theory and practice were that metal broken up small, and covered with gravel would solidify with traffic and make an even surface. We know from our own observation that this is correct. But we also know that the majority of the roads in the Canterbury province are made of small boulders, covered with shingle. Any person who has noticed one of our roads after the passage of a flock of sheep, will have been able to see the process of disintegration—so to speak—that has tiken place, and which goes on upon a more limited scale whenever roads made as ours are, are subjected to heavy traffic. In the first case the sharp hard feet of the sheep loosen the earth in which the rounded boulders, commonly called shingle, are resting, and the uneven pressure following forces them altogether out cf their positions. In the second case, a heavy wheel passing over these boulders starts them from their beds, and further traffic over them serves but to work larger holes in the road than those from which they were displaced. The result of all this is that the roads hereabout never last as long as macadamised roads should (last. The Beach road is considered one of the best in the vicinity of Ashburton, but all along the length of the best portion of it may be seen protruding from the general level a vast number of small boulders varying in average diameter from five to eight inches, which only need an extra heavy uneven pressure to tear them from their resting places. Nothing of this kind occurs on roads made on the principle advocated by Macadam. His metal was not only broken, but broken small. There are even now in evidence roads made strictly on the lines laid down by him so long ago that most of the original constructors have passed over to the great majority. All the roads made in Tasmania in the earliest years of its settlement were of this class, and the result is that the annual cost of repairing the main trunk road between Launceston and Hobarton (about one hundred and twenty-six miles) i# much less than the cost of keeping half that length of road in repair in | this part of the world. The road w£ are referring to was probably constructed about sixty years ago, but we have seen it stated somewhere that the broken metal put upon it had to be small enough te pass through a twoinch ring, or it would not be passed by the Government surveyor. We can imagine the dismay with which an old time road surveyor would gaze upon the rocks which may at times be seen lying on our country roads after having been unearthed by a heavy waggon or a traction engine. Doubtless it will be urged that there is nothing available for roads in this locality, but shingle, and that if it does not make a road that will remain passable for any length jyf £ime, it does not cost very much, We question yhefcber shingle is really a cheap material to use in the way it is generally used in Canterbury. When all is counted it is probable that a shingle road costs more in the long run than one j/iade of broken metal. The wear and tear to horse's feet and to the wheels and springs of vehicles, combined with the frequency of the repairs necessary, would constitute a larger item qf cost than the out'ay required to obtain broken metal—even here. We suggest to our Road Boards the propriety of making arrangements to have only broken metal used on their roads. Ijf this be not practicable we would urge that it be made g. condition that contractors put no shingle on the roads above a certain average dJLame&ep. We are convinced this you'd be found in the enel to

be a saving to the ratepayers. Moreover we should be spared the reproach which now—not always unjustly — attaches to the roads in some of our ridings that, " they are the worst in the Australasian colonies." That at anyrate is what a traveller from Victoria said of them a day or two since, to which remark a local farmer replied —" If you call them bad roads now, what would you think of them in the i winter 1 "