Formation of Gladstone Rd

“Gladstone Road was largely a tangle of ti-tree and fern,” related Mr. Smith to a “Times” representative, “and the first real move for its improvement was made when the Road Board let a contract, to form it properly, to a Mr. Owen Kelly. Mr. Kelly's tools consisted of nothing so elaborate as a bitumen plant—nor even a simple roller—let alone a steam one. He went to work with axes, slashers and shovels solely, and really made a very good job indeed. His men were set first to cut down all the standing scrub and this was thrown into the centre of the road. Then the shovels came into the operation and the earth was thrown from the sides of the road on to the pile of scrub in the centre. That was all the work required to be done as far as Mr. Kelly was concerned and the traffic and rains did all the rolling-in of the surface required. “Yet, I can tell you,” he said, “that road was then perfect compared with what it had been before.”