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the West Australia.
"I VIGILANS ET AUDAX. -
PERTH, MONDAY, NOV. 30, 1891.
IN view of the timber resources of
Western Australia, the subject of street
paving has a special interest for the
colony. In London and the other large
cities of the United Kingdom, for a good
many years past, experiments have been
tried in order to ascertain what material
will best achieve the three principal
desiderata of a town roadway-a minimum
of noise, a maximum of wear, and a
secure foothold for horses. Macadam,
asphalt, graniteand-wooden cases, even
iron, have all been tried, and there now
seems, every reason to believe that the
victory remains with wood. Macadam
still retains its supremacy in the construction
of country roads, and wherever
the traffic is light. But it is not equal
to the tremendous wear and tear to which
it is exposed in a crowded thoroughfare ;
it is in constant need of repair, and is a
creator of dust. Iron and stone have
both been found dangerous and unsuitable
for horses. Asphalt, of which much
was at one time hoped, U £X«e*aiYoly
slippery in camp, that is is the normal
English weather, besides being costly
both to lay down and to maintain
Wood, therefore, seems destined to hold
the pride of place as the best material
for the formation of urban st reef 8,
and its position in this respect has become
much improved by the discovery
that hard wood is specially suitable for
the purpose, affording as it does a good
foothold, and being at the same time
exceedingly durable.
A For a long time there was a prejudice
in favour of the soft varieties of timber,
and thousands of tall pines from the
mountain forests of Sweden and Norway
have fulfilled their destiny of usefulness,
in scenes very different to those of their
birthplace, and as the channels for all the
rush and bustle of London streets. It
is still disputed whether the hard woods
afford so good a foothold for horses as
the soft; but be this as it may, there
can be in question that the hold which hard
wood affords is quite sufficiently good, and
in respect of durability the hard wood has
the advantage of far surpassing its rival.
In London a great length of roadway
has been paved with West Australian
jarrah, and the homesick native of the
colony visiting the metropolis of the
Empire can easily if he thinks his pairs
will be assuage! thereby, tread, not the
soil or the heath, but the timber of
Western Australia. The estimation in
which Australian hardwood is held for
paving purposes in the United Kingdom
is proved by the visit recently paid by a
member of a wellknown London firm of
timber dealers, for the purpose of carefully
inspecting the indigenous hardwoods
of Australia with a view to the
more extensive employment of them for
street paving purposes in Europe. As
was only to be expected, Mr. Walsh, the
gentle- in question, visited Western
Australia, and as a consequence of his
visit, the timber mills have ample orders
for the immediate future, with the prospect
of an enormous increase as the
suitability of West Australian hardwood
for street paving purposes becomes more
widely known.
To turn from the general to the particular,
the question of paving has a
special importance to the citizens of
Perth. At the recent municipal elections
more than one of the candidates referred
to the condition of the roads within the city
boundaries, and if the speakers wished to
find fault, this one subject, afforded ample
scope for the exercise of their powers.
One of the subsidiary causes which has
helped to keep back the growth of the
metropolitan district, has been the want
of a good building stone. But the want
of stone operates in more ways than as a
check to building. It hinders road
making where the provision of a solid
roadway is specially essential. In Perth,
we cannot obtain in the neighbourhood
flagstones for our footpaths, and seats and
cubes of stones for our roads are also
practically beyond our reach. But
we have an unrivalled supply of
timber waiting to be used. Those
who have of late years visited Melbourne
and Sydney will remember
the progress that wood paving has made
in those cities. The process is no doubt
expensive, because a solid bed of concrete
has to be provided as a foundation for
the wooden blocks. At present a pave-
ment of so durable a description may be
neither within our means nor a necessity,
but it is at least satisfactory to recollect
that we have got the raw material ready
to hand. While, however, the time may
not have come to apply wood paving even
to our more important roadways, it is
certainly worth considering whether
wooden blocks or scantlings might not
be economically applied in the formation
of side walks. Already jarrah has been
used as curbing, and some attempt has
been made at utilising it in the shape of
bevelled scantlings in front of more than
one building. In providing a clean and
firm footpath, the experiment has proved
successful, but to pedestrians the surface
is not as comfortable as could be wished,
owing probably to the bevelling being too
broad and deep. This is the mistake which
was made in the early days of wooden
street pavements, and it is a question
whether these wooden side walks would
not be better with a very much lighter
bevelling, or perhaps, even with none at
all. At all events experiments should be
continually made, and if this were done
there is little doubt that before very long
a wooden footway, comfortable to use,
reasonably jtconamicaL-in,^ construction,
and of good durability would be discovered.
Gabes would, it may be expected,
serve the purpose admirably, but it is
more than probable that with the city's
present Means they are placed out of
court. But, in any case the question of
streetpaviug,and of footpaths particularly,
deserves further investigation. With the
materials for street formation of the best
type close to hand, it would be a re-
proach, if while the colony is supplying
the great cities of the United Kingdom
and Europe with the material for wood
paving, the capital of the colony should
of all places be the last to adopt a system
of road construction for which the colony
furnishes the raw material.
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