BETTER ROADS

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 59, Issue 260, 5 December 1930, Page 6

BETTER ROADS

FKIDAY, DECEMBEB 5th, 1980.

If the Avave of unemployment wliich has immersed the Dominiou, in common with other parts of the world, lias had no other good effects it has at least conferred upon the couiltry a much improved system of highways. In the formulation of measures to relieve uneipployment, work on the roads took a foremost place. Improvements that would ordinarily have been spread over a period of several years have been compressed into two or three. Eelief gangs have • been assembled and put to work on contracts of considerable magnitude. Not only have existing roads been straighteoed, widened, and the grades and surfacing improved, but also, as in the case of the new motor highway througli the beautiful Urewera countrv, new roads have been created. It is true that motorists have helped substantially to pav for these works by their heavy contributions in the form of the petrol tax and other levies, but the necessity for taking steps to meet the unemployment situation undoubtedly accelerated the process of the improvements. It is true, too, that even though additional demands have been made upon them byythe exchequer, the improved "condiwon of the roads convinces most motorists that, from their point of view, the outlay has been well worth while. One of the things that strikes nearlv all visitors to New Zealand is the excellence of the highways system in ratio to the comparatively short period of the country's development. Less than ninety years ago no road other than a Maori track was in existence. For several years following the first processes of pioneering settlement the roads foliowed the beaehes, the riverbeds or old tribal trails worn, perha-ps for centuries, by generations of warriors. Those compelled to strike off what, bv a polite euphemism, was called the beaten track fouglit a way throngh dense forest or set their course by peaks and ranges, riding over tussock plains or through the almost impene-trable fern which covered much land now smiling pasture. It is interesting, in reviewing the reeent development of the roads, to see how witliin the past few years main highways have been formed along the line of old-time pioneering roads. Between Nelson and Marlborough, in the old days, horsemen foliowed > the Tophouse route, across a mountain pass into the valley of the Wairau. In later years that route, except as a means of moving stock from back-country stations, became almost forgotten. Now it has been opened up again, and increased jnotor traffic following improvements to the road gives it an Increasing standard of importance. Across the Haast Pass and the Lewis saddle, two other paths across the Southern Alps that were much use'd by earlier generations, motor roads liave lately been formed, so that motorists will have opportunity to explore new country by wray of roads that have a genuine historical interest. In Hawke's Bay an- almost unbroken ribbon of concrete and bitumen links Napier with Woodville, where sixty years ago no road worth the name existed. Historians relate that the first road from Napier into Ihe interior was the brawling Tuki Tuki river. This difficult route was in its turn supplanted by that primitive bullock track, the Middle Boad. In turn the Middle Boad. was supplanted by the Te Aute road, which, elevated to the status of main highway, now carries an enonnous volume of traffic and boasts one of the most uniform paved surfaces to be found anywhere in New Zealand. To Hawke's Bay the improvement of the highways has been a development of great importance. More and more motorists are travelling tl^e length of the North Island by way of Napier and Taupo, and the opening up of the new road through the TTrewera will give them a further strong inducement to come this way. In the internal commumcaiions of the province better roads have spelt imjiroved conditions for farmers, better access to manv outlying loealities, and great er efficioncy in the despateh oi' such business as depends on the ro-ids for its exeeution. The Hawke's Bay Connty Couneil, once under suspieion as behind the times in matiere of road improvement, has of reeent years kept pace with the vanguard of progress. There is only one word that may be added, and that concerns Napier itself. In Napier the standard of roads in reeent years has appeared to go back, rather than forward. Maintenance has not been kept to the proper standard, and the result at present is that some of the most importnnt roads in Napier, such as the Marino j Parade, Carlyle street and Sliakes- 1 peare road are in bad condition, , and getting worse. |