426 REPORTS ON THE STATE OP SCIENCE. — 1919. 



during the last twenty, years development of the country by-roads had not been 

 needed socially and commercially. The old crooked lanes of our forefathers, 

 which had perforce become the main roads in ananj^ ca.ses, full of dangerous 

 corners, were seldom direct routes between important points. But some of these 

 have endured till to-day. All over the country, it can be said with truth, 

 hundreds of miles of unnecessary road mileage are to-day in use owing to the 

 fact that new main roads have not been constructed, suitable for tratfic and 

 leading direct from place to place. 



I may mention here that the Road Board, whose ten j^ears of good and useful 

 work has just come to an end in consequence of the formation of the Transport 

 Ministry, had several schemes for the construction of new main roads in hand, 

 especially in and near London. The revenues of the Pi,oad Board, which this 

 year would probably have amounted to over three and a-half millions sterling, 

 derived from taxes on carriages and on motor spirit, would also have helped 

 much in new road construction. These revenues have now been taken away from 

 the Road Board and absorbed into the Exchequer. The war has justified many 

 things, but the breaking of the Parliamentary, bargain made in 1908, by wliitu 

 the taxes on mechanical and other vehicles and on motor spirit were to be used 

 for road purposes, is entirely unjustifiable. This tliree to four millions a year 

 was improving the roads at no cost to the ratepayer or the State, and it was 

 but mere justice that those who were using the roads were helping to pay for 

 them. This sound practice should be revived at the earliest possible moment, 

 but as Parliament has recently allowed the subordination of roads to railway 

 interests in the recent Transport Bill, it can only be by the steady work of those 

 who believe in the future of roads that Parliament can be brought to see once 

 more the importance of road questions. 



As to the future of roads in this country, had it not been for this recent 

 regrettable step on the part of the Government, it would have been possible 

 to speak in hopeful terms. The daily increasing importance of the scientific 

 investigation of problems of road transport and of road construction is obvious. 

 But it is to be feared now that politics will begin to affect road questions. 

 Hitherto the Road Board has not been influenced in giving grants by any 

 political consideration. But in future, here as in some other countries," road 

 grants will undoubtedly be used as bribes by unscrupulous candidates and 

 members of Parliament. Soon we may, live to read : ' Vote for So-and-so, who 

 has promised to secure larger grants for iocal roads ! ' Members of Parliament 

 will very soon find out that the votes of ratepayers can be influenced by the 

 making or non-making of new roads out of public moneys, by the amount of 

 grants given for the maintenance or improvement of existing roads, and the 

 building of wider and stronger bridges. They will be tempted to use their 

 opportunities of political pressure in Parliament to gain votes at the expense of 

 road efficiency or proper road policy. In the early railway days members of 

 Parliament often tried to please their constituencies by supporting or opposinsr 

 construction of railways. It is to be feared that roads will be used in the future 

 in the game of party politics. ' Graft ' instead of merit will, I fear, often decide 

 future questions concerning roads and road transport, just as railway policy in 

 some countries is one of the chief planks in the programmes of political parties. 



There is another aspect of roads which is more attractive than that just 

 discussed. ' How is the road of the future likely, to be made? ' Quite recently 

 several new forms of artificial or treated road-stone have been the subject of 

 experiments. Some of these are merely improved forms of slag or hard stone, 

 heated and then immersed in a bituminous substance ; others are made artificially, 

 like wood blocks, stone setts, etc., and are intended to be dressed and laid down 

 in varying fashions. Some of these consist of rough glass blocks, which promise 

 to provide a durable kind of surface, faj less slippery than wood blocks or 

 asphalte, and wear-resisting in a high degree. With a road made of this kind 

 of material the camber need be very slight, a point of great advantage to all 

 traffic, especially horse-drawn. Some of these new road materials also provide 

 an outlet for the use of by-products now wasted. Kleimfiaster, as used on the 

 Continent ajid now to be seen on the Chelsea Embankment, is worthy of a more 

 extended trial. Then there is the road made of .small stone setts carefully laid 

 on sand or other foundation, as in France, now to be seen on the new direct 



