Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-08-14
ROADS.

..- Honolulu, Aug. /.
! Editor Honolulu Star Bulletin.
Sir: Maxim" in his attack on the
Hawaiian band as luxury retained
at the expense of good roads, reminds
me of that Bnocker in scripture who
said that the precious ointment
( might have been sold for three hun
dred pence and given to the poor" in
stead of being used to anoint the
Master. His notion OF economy is
akin to that of the mathematical
crank that estimates the degree to
which poverty might be eliminated by
discarding the useless buttons on the
! sleeves and coat-tails of masculine
apparel. Most people of Honolulu, l
believe, regard the band as one of our
best promotion assets.
/ A great deal of nonsense is talked
about roads here, and 1t has come to
the pass that many candidate for civic
hcnors appear to think that all they
have, to do to be saved is to jabber
roads" in poll parrot fashion. Some
! of the nonsense of Maxim" appears
in this passage from his letter, refer
ring to stretch of 200 yards of bad
street, namely: "No community in
/ the states would stand for that over
night" Not many years ago ! spent
some days in an important manufac-
turing town Of New England, which
was founded long before the revolu-
/! ton. as proved by monuments to val
lof in the local Indian troubles before
i that event which were to be seen
there. Its streets on which electric
cars were running were one continu-
Gus bog of black mud, and, as for
sidewalks, one had to cling to the
fence pickets along the street or lane
forming the shortest way from the
railway station to the principal bust
ness street, to avoid sliding on. the
miry path into ankle-depth of mud.
Los Angeles is often pointed to as an
example of a city of perfect streets.
Yet a few days ago read a statement
of that city's program of street i'm
showed that the mileage of "unmade"
thoroughfares in the plan took three
figures to express.
| Honolulu, city and county, has a
road problem that is not to be solved
by hot-air stump-speaking or reckless
newspaper ventilation Allowing that
some of the adverse criticism of the
municipal government with regard to
roads may be just, yet substantial
progress has been made ever since
county government came into effect.
The same difficulty has been con.
fronted here as in every part of the
United States and Europe, that of
finding good substitutes for the. old
macadam construction rendered obso-
] lete by the automobile Both our city
engineers and supervisors have been
trying to keep in touch with the lat.
est efforts at surmounting this diff.
Guilty, and one of the failures of which
much has been heard was the result
CT copying method from California.
This was proved failure here no
earlier than it was in the country Of
origin. /
Again, many think they are saying
the last word in road policy when they
denounce the local government for
paying too little attention to main
tenance. The idea is correct in refer
ence to maintaining roads built for
permanence, but 1t may not be so
wise If reference is to roads built in
the old-fashioned way. In fact, some
Of the most wasteful expenditure of
road money that has been made in the
past few years has been in resurfac-
ing in the old way long stretches OF
macadam roads, as any observer can
see that they begin to go to pieces
from the very day that the roller is
taken OF them. England, among 9TH
er European countries, has often been
mentioned as an example of proper
road maintenance. Yet If some Of
those who so glibly discourse of for
eign systems kept iaeir information
up to date, they would be less fluent
in advice to the local authorities.
Lately England has, discarded its old
maintenance methods as being too
expensive, the policy of that country
now being to let the old-fashioned
roads wear out to the limit, or until
means are available for their replace
ment with roads guaranteed to last
without repairs for q long term of
years.
Extend the cantonier system" is
another cry often heard It would
have more force if accompanied by
an expert estimate of what an eff
cient cantonier system would cost for
the 100 miles of roads around this
island. let alone the hundreds of miles
of suburban thoroughfares.
Honolulu has had as good engineer
ing supervision of its roadwork as al