Gravel roads built to last

The macadam road is named after the developer of this type of road in Great Britain, John L. McAdam. McAdam’s road was made of broken stone which the traffic would pack down. Rain washed the smaller particles into interstices, and traffic would hold them there. Thus a smooth, even, hard surface would be produced. There are several types of macadam roads, each suitable for particular conditions of traffic, foundation soils, and the availability of the materials for building them. In some coarse gravel or crushed rock is used for the base. Where the latter is used, particularly in country districts where rock suitable for road work is plentiful, a crusher is moved along the road and the rock hauled to it from the adjoining fields. Where traffic will not average more than 250 to 300 vehicles a day, one-half automobiles and one-quarter heavily-loaded wagons with steel tyres, the ordinary macadam road will still be found satisfactory, but where the traffic gets much heavier than that, and where the percentage of automobiles is much greater, special surfacing is necessary.

Whāngai explained

In cases of Maori children whose parents have died there is no fuss made to the charitable institutions to take over the care of the bereaved children. Instead, members of the deceased parents quietly adopt the young people into their families, and no more is heard of the matter. Where there are no relatives of the children other members of the village undertake the responsibility. 

Should the village folk not be able to do this then Natives from outside districts come to the rescue. It sometimes happens, too, that where there is a large family of children and parents are poor, relatives of the father or mother will take a child at birth, or when the baby is about 12 months old, and out of pure kindness of heart assume the responsibilities of foster parents. 

This humanitarian spirit is an old law of the Maori. 

Tb in decline but still deadly

Tuberculosis has throughout the world shown a considerable decline since 1800. The number is steadily reducing year by year, and last year fell to 684, or 6.14 per 10,000 of mean population. Tuberculosis, however, takes fourth place as a death-dealing factor in New Zealand. First place is taken by heart disease (all forms), the second by cancer, and the third by violence (accident, suicide, and homicide). Last year 684 persons died from tuberculosis; just over 2000 were under treatment for the disease (all forms) in public hospitals and sanatoria, and a great many more were domiciled privately. It is a disease which in great measure can be prevented, and many cases, given early and thorough treatment, can be cured.

Of the total of 684 in 1925, 560 were due to lung tuberculosis. This disease can be conveyed from person to person, by careless handling of sputum, or by repeated and close personal contact. Insufficient or improper food and clothing, bad housing, particularly the overcrowding of persons in living rooms with insufficient ventilation, alcoholism, and a damp subsoil are important factors which lessen human resistance to this disease. The children of tuberculous parents are often specially susceptible.

 In 1925 there were 124 deaths from tuberculosis of organs other than the lung. Whereas nearly all cases of lung tuberculosis are of human origin a proportion, approaching half, owe their origin to infection from tuberculous cow’s milk. — ODT, 5.7.1926