85 



daries of properties; whereas in this country the road 

 is only too often merely an adjunct to efficiently divide 

 one property from another. 



The law governing the division of properties, and 

 those concerning the establishing of "colonies", pri- 

 marily provide roads in the sense of boundaries, and 

 secondarily as means of communication, and only fi- 

 nally as transitable ways for transport. 



One of the most common sources of trouble to the 

 camp man is this error in attributing to roads the task 

 of acting as boundary lines, and proves that in reality 

 there was never any proper appreciation of what roads 

 are really for. This must b^ attributed to the fact that 

 when roads were first planned, transport by vehicles 

 was a secondary consideration, transit of animals was 

 first considered. This is evinced in the abnormal width 

 conceded the national ways. If roads suitable for ve- 

 hicles had been in mind when such ways were decreed 

 .a most extraordinary optimism must have characteris- 

 ed our legislators regarding the traffic of the future, 

 for no one with any pretension to a practical mind 

 could ever suppose that thought was given to the 

 possibility of turning such mighty strips of virgin 

 soil into roads such as they are conceived in Europe. 



ROADS AND BOUNDARIES. 



With the light traffic of nowadays, the great 

 width of such roads is far from a drawback, on the 

 contrary when compared to neighbouring ways, the 

 wide road is a great advantage, for the sun provides 

 for the drying and the wind for the levelling. Nor 

 need absolute level in roads be sought after; it is only 

 too natural to the configuration of the country, for as 

 every carter knows, slight rises and falls are more fa- 

 vourable since they ease the draught for the horses. 



What the average user of the roads here wants to 

 begin with are roads which permit him to get over the 

 dry parts and get through the wet 



Contrary to the general opinion and from my own. 

 experience of camp travelling I am still confident that 

 a little goodwill generally could be infused into "lin- 

 deros'' and neighbours in common with regard to 

 keeping the good parts of the roads tolerable, and if 

 the driver of every "chata" that got stuck was convin- 

 ced that it would be to his own interest to fill the "hue- 

 lla" in again, holes too, would soon be less conspicuous 



