CINDERS AND CLAY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2192, 16 May 1908, Page 2

CINDERS AND CLAY.

INDIAN IDEA OF ROAD FORMATION. SHOULD THE EXPERIMENT BE TRIED : j “Roads, give us good roads” has always been the cry in Poverty Bay, and at the recent mayoral election, proposals to obtain an efficient supply of metal for road-making purposes were ono of the principal planks in the platforms of the candidates. For the past thirty years the Gisborne Borough Council and the Cook County Council have tried many schemes to provide cheap and good" roads in tlio outlying districts, but the cost of anil difficulty to obtain metal has always stood in the way. The Poverty Bay country is of peculiar formation, consisting principally of papa or sandy day, upon whicli, on tile elevated parts, grow dense manuka and fern scrub, while the flats were nothing but flax swamps. When tins is remembered ,thc troubles of past years will be easily understood. A few weeks ago it was reported that an outcrop of stone had been discovered at AVhataupoko, where it was generally thought anv stratified formation did not exist. The Gisborne Borough Council will visit the locality on Monday next and examino the stone to see if it is in anv way_ suitable for road formation. Discussing the subject with a Times” reporter yesterday, the exMayor (Mr John Townley) said the discovery was not new. as a quarry u as opened up on the site many years and tlio stone tried by the Council.

“We put down a good many yards of the metal,” said Mr Townley,

“and I doubt if it is any cheaper to obtain than 'Patutahi stone. In my opinion it is doubtful if it is as good for the work as Patutahi stone as it contains a lot of sand and pyrites, which seem to crimblo aii-av under traffic.”

BAKED OLAY Mi A SUBSTITUTE. “I will tell you of a novel method of road-making that was brought under my notice some time ago,” continued tiio retired Mayor, “and the idea might yet prove of some value in this district. To begin my story i must toll you that at about Christinas time a Rev. Mr Blackio, a Baptist minister, called upon me. Ho had just returned from a drive to Ormond, and as v.-e were experiencing a very dry summer and the roads were thick with dust, his black suit and top bat presented a sorry sight. Ho iniidly drew my attention to his condition, and during the conversation told me ho had been seven years iri India, and had travelled in many parts where good roads had been made without any metal at all, and yet these roads were harder, less dusty and more even than tho roads ho had seen here. He went on to explain how tlio roads wero formed, and said the surface was covered with burnt clay and cinders which set into a hard solid mass and formed no mud and dried quickly in wet weather.

“While he could not give me all the details of the method of burning the clay, he explained that tho centre of the road was dug out and heaped on one side. A low centralarch was placed over the dug out portion of the roadway and underneath waste timber and rubbish that would burn was placed. Over the top of the arch a thick layer of wet clay was placed, and when it had set hard the arch was removed and the clay left standing. Vents to allow a draught for the fuel to burn were then made and the whole mass fired. "When it fell and the fire had burnt out a conglomerate mass of clay and cinders was the result. This formed a good road surface and the heavier the traffic the harder it set. My visitor said the clay in many parts of India was not unlike the clay hero, and he was confident that such a road would carry traffic as well or not better than shingle.

“If what Mr Blackie says is correct, and I don’t doubt that it is, I think the idea is well worth a trial oil some of the clay roads in our districts. There are many side roads where there is plenty of dead waste timber and manuka scrub that could ho used for an experimental trial. For that purpose a simpler method might be tried than the one adopted in India, and I believe if the clay was ploughed up with a scoop, heaped upon a pyre of dead timber, qnd the whole lot burnt, we would get fair results. I am sure such roads would ; prove more serviceable than the corduroy roads that are made now with manuka scrub, and at the same time would prove less expensive. At least the idea is well worth a trial on roads when it is almost impossible to get metal, and I merely give the information as it was given to me, and let any of the local bodies do what they think best with it.”