OUR COMMON ROADS — MURPHY. 429 
ArT. XI.—Ovur Common Roaps—By M. Murpny, C. E., Prov- 
incial Government Engineer, N. S. 
There is a very great amount of labour employed, not only in 
bringing the product into existence, but in making it when in 
existence accessible to those for whose use it is intended. Many 
important classes find employment in some function of this kind. 
The distribution of our products is just as important as their 
production. There is the whole class of carriers by land or water 
distributing the products of the sea, the farm, and the mine, and 
in doing so rendering just as important services as if they were 
the producers. It is enough if the producer and the carrier con- 
tribute sufficiently towards necessary consumption; they are all 
‘agencies of production, and all are essential, and influence the 
progress of society. No less important are the arteries of distri- 
bution or transport, such as railways, roads, water conveyance, 
ete. Roads are frequently, in our Colonies, made by the Govern- 
ment, and opened gratuitously to the public, and in this case each 
producer, in paying the quota of taxes levied, pays for the use of 
those roads which conduce to his convenience, and if they are 
made with any tolerable degree of judgment, they increase the 
returns of his industry by far more than an equivalent amount. 
One of the problems of to-day—one that must largely affect 
the future of this country, and upon which a large proportion of 
public money is annually being expended —is that of road- 
making. We cannot say that the day of the ordinary highway 
is past or has become less important because we are introducing 
railways. Each means of communication has its own use, and 
the office of each is, not to displace the others, but to supplement 
them ; and although the study of road-makiug for the past fifty 
years has been eclipsed by the great structural works resulting 
from scientific research and engineering skill, which have con- 
tributed so much to the advancement of civilization, it is not of 
so trivial and subordinate a nature as it may at first appear. It 
