88 



UNITED ACTION AND GOOD ROADS. 



Again except in the times of bad weather the diffi- 

 culties are not at all apparent, and it is precisely whem 

 the weather is good that the roads must be put in order,, 

 that is when nobody is the least disposed to do any- 

 thing. 



The farmers are most interested precisely at the 

 moment of transporting: the harvest, and then the re- 

 pairs are done in as hurried a way as possible ; a month 

 later when the rainy season of late autumn sets in, des- 

 pite all the labours the roads still retain their reputa- 

 tion of being the worst ever known. 



In States where the system has been tried of oblig- 

 ing each neighbour to contribute a labourer, or join 

 himself, towards forming a road repair gang, the great- 

 est difficulty has been to get them to submit to the di- 

 rection of a competent road builder, otherwise even 

 with the best of hands it means nothing more nor 

 less than innumerable groups of amateurs and the 

 roads still result poor enough after all the trouble. 

 The difficulty has been got over by requiring pecuni- 

 ary aid from the carters, as well as manual help from? 

 the neighbours, for the greatest economy is attained if 

 the moving of expensive ' * cuadrillas " can be avoided. 



Although the neighbours are absolutely necessary 

 towards helping to maintain the roads, the best solution 

 is undoubtedly making them contribute with money y 

 which is the system generally hi vogue throughout the 

 country, admitedly without the roads being greatly be- 

 nefitted. Another variation has been to leave the "cua- 

 drilla" under the direction of the owners of the proper- 

 ties, which usually means that the most powerful con- 

 tributor gets the most done for him. This latter way 

 of dealing with the costs of putting roads into toler- 

 able condition has in its favour one argument in that 

 it tends to split up properties where an abnormal 

 length of road falls to one proprietor, who often will 

 prefer to rent a part of the land in order to get out of" 

 the responsibility of attending to his share of the work. 

 This is, however, but a remote contingency in most 

 parts of this Republic, where rural property is far too- 

 extensive to be even affected by such measures. 



For the moment, the aim should be to see that 

 the worst places are made passable, and with that rest 

 content . 



