|
The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803-1842) (about)
|
Cite: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2549859
No comments yet.
2 corrections, most recently by anonymous - Show corrections
The Roads.
The state of the roads throughout the
various districts of the interior forms a
never-failing topic of complaint among the settlers and of comment in the public Journals. These complaints are not con- fined to any one district of the territory. In the neighbourhood of Windsor, for example, the roads are said to be nearly impassable, not altogether from the state of disrepair into which they have been allowed to fall, but also from the state of the bridges, which, in many places, have been burnt down by bushfires, and thus allowed to remain without any at- tempt being made to repair them. The road from Campbelltown to Menangle Ford, has to our knowledge for the last three years been allowed to remain with- out any attempt to repair it, several of the bridges being altogether impassable, and none of the others passable even in broad day-light without danger to life or
limbs.
We are aware that the magnitude of the works for levelling the streets of Sydney, at present in operation, has greatly cramped the hands of the Govern- ment, by absorbing so much of the disposable labour, but we are also aware that, even before these works were con- templated, and when a much greater number of male convicts were in the employ of the Crown, the same complaint existed as at present, and nearly in as great a degree. We are informed that the Surveyor, under whose charge the roads throughout the county of'Cumber- land were at that time placed, had never
even .seen, much less was he at all acquainted with, the actual condition of the roads which it was his especial duty to keep in repair. Now we do not mean to impute blame to the Surveyor to whom we refer, for the amount of business, unconnected with these roads altogether, to which he had to attend, was sufficient to preclude the possibility of his bestowing upon them the attention they required ; but it certainly was a high farce-and one against which the settlers should have loudly protested -t o observe,
that whenever coir late Governor,
Sir Richard Bourke, had projected a tour into the interior in any direction, a gang of convicts were set to work with all possible expedition to fill up with loose earth the more glaring ruts which disfi- gured the roads, thus deceiving the Go- vernor as to the actual condition of the roads he was travelling, and exposing the settlers to still worse morasses on their journies than before, whenever the first shower of rain had reduced the sham repairs to the consistency of a puddle.
Thus it has been, and will ever be while the Colonists have to depend on the Government to keep the roads in thorough repair. The state machine
too ponderous, and too unwieldy in its movements to ensure the requisite degree of attention on the part of its officers to such mere minutice as the repair of the roads. Some other plan must be adopted to secure an object, which, of however slight consequence it may ap- pear in the eyes of our Colonial states- men, is .nevertheless of very great import- ance to the welfare of the community. Under the present system not only are the roads, generally, kept in a shameless state of disrepair, but the sufferer from the consequences of this neglect has no re- medy for the loss he has sustained. Until the attainment of such a remedy be practi- cable,- until some party or parties be made responsible for the consequences of such neglect, it is evident that the roads and bridges of the Colony will be allowed to remain for years together in the same break-neck condition, as they have hither- to been. It has been proposed to let the roads by contract, and to make the con- tractor liable for casualties arising from any neglect on his part. The plan would certainly be preferable to the present system, but we doubt whether it also would not be found too unwieldy for practical use, from the great number of divisions that would be rendered necessary to suit the convenience of the contractors. Some such system at that adopted in the mother country, seems to us preferable. In Scotland, besides the customary tolls, a rate is imposed on each householder of a certain rental for new roads, and for keeping those already made in good order. With an overflowing Treasury Chest, such as we have in this Colony, fortunately no such rate would be necessary. The trustees for the disposal of this fund are selected from the princi- pal landholders in the county in which the rate is collected, and it is their duty to watch over the state of the roads within that county, as well as to make new ones wherever they may be considered necessary, the law holding them strictly amenable for all casualties which may arise from wilful neglect on the part of their officers. We have now before us a Scotch paper containing a report of an action brought against the Road Trustees of the County of Perth, in which heavy damages were given by a Jury as some compensation to the sufferers from a casualty occasioned by what on our colonial highways would be consi- dered a very immaterial negligence. The following is a brief summary of the facts
of the case:
Mr. Findlater, a respectable coal-merchant at Perth, was some time ago upset whilst travelling with his son, a youth, in a chaise from Gowrie to his home, and his son was killed ; Mr. Findlater also received great personal injury, the accident took place from some stones having been negli- gently loft in the road. Mr. Findlater brought an action against the trustees of the Carse of Gowno roads, which came on for trial on Friday, at Perth, when the jury, being satisfied that the dreadful accident above related had occurred from neglect on the part of the officers of the trust, returned a verdict of £800 damages against the defenders.
We trust another session of the Legis- lative Council will not be allowed to
elapse without the adoption of some ju-
dicious measure for the attainment of this end.