The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1909. THE DUST NUISANCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2406, 22 January 1909, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1909. THE DUST NUISANCE.

Tlie municipal authorities in Melbourne are actively collecting information concerning the methods of coping with the dust nuisance. The use of tar is strongly favored. Portions of St. lvilda Road have been laid down with tarred metal, and all the principal streets of flic suburban borough of. Brighton are'treated in the same way. The results are said to have been excellent. Tlie recent International Congress, on Roads, held in Paris, was practically unanimous in approving of the substitution ol tar for water in consolidating road materials. It was stated that in some Paris streets the use of tar bad killed a number of trees on the boulevards, but this, it was explained, was due to the too lavish use of impure tar. The Congress recommended that the liquid should be, free from .matters soluble in water, and Unit care should be taken lo get rid of ammoniacal liquor. Tlw smallest quantity of tar sufficient to hold the metal in place should bo employed. The evidence of engineers who had had experience in Britain or in France showed that a road so formed . need not be expensive rdhat it is waterproof, harmless to vegetation, and practically dustless, provided it is swept at regular intervals to get rid of the ordinary refuse and the dust blown in from neighboring lands. The cost of upkeep, it is said, is very much lower than that of macadamised roads in general. The engineers agreed that the reported damage to vegetation and the complaints that tarred roads irritated the eyes and throats of pedestrians Were due to the use of crude tar on road surfaces which had been already broken up. This, it was explained, was <a bad medium, applied to improperly prepared foundations. Tlio crudo tar contained ammoniacal. liquor,, which was subsequently washed out bv rain or then dried in tlie form of crystals and produced, an irritating dust. Tlie broken surfaces on which the tar bad been spread contributed to disintegration. A good deal lias been done in some of our Dominion cities in making tarred roads, and generally speaking tlie experiment lias proved successful. In Christchurch many miles of streets have beep so constructed, .and the ‘'Lyttelton Times” says of the method :—“Our local experieiico of tarred roads has beon'on the whole happy, or as happy as a v rather indifferent- Council would permit at to be. The tarred surfaces lasted well, except ' where traffic was particularly

heavy.V In ’ lms been -laid\ ~.<••• in Gladstone is doubt that i» -.no "borough Gounci could see its way to have > tar rod surface on the main thorougidarcs ol the town, and our excellent water supply was used freely the .streets would bo very*much cloauor than they have beojv on several days recently. It would be interesting to .know the exact cost locally /of making tarred roads, for one can scarcely believe that it would be materially higher than the expensive methods employed in tlie past. The Council might easily do worso than have an enquiry made to investigate tin’s phase .of municipal work. S !