Highway a road to ruin

Several of the car drivers who made the trip from Dunedin to Invercargill in connection with the OtagoSouthland football match met trouble, and if their cars were not actually ruined they received a severe knocking about. The members of the Otago team had a rough ride into Invercargill on Friday night. The cars left Dunedin at 1 o’clock, and some of them did not get into Invercargill till 9 o’clock. The car in which the Times reporter returned to Dunedin on Sunday had a varied experience. Passing Clinton the car had a desperate struggle to get through some more ploughedup road, and nearly capsized once, but the precincts of Milton were safely reached. The main bridge at Milton is not open to traffic, but the cheerful optimist knew all about the route to be taken. He guided us down a muddy side street, till at last we came to a high hedge with a large signboard: “Danger. Go slowly.” The car went slowly all right — in fact, it came to a full stop bogged in the mud. A nearby resident came on the scene, and assured us that it was impossible for any car to get through the opening in the hedge, so the significance of the sign is hardly apparent. The car was pushed and dragged out of the mud, and, nothing daunted, the cheerful optimist said he knew all about the route now. The car started back over its tracks, and turned in at another road to come round behind Milton. To call the DunedinInvercargill highway a main road is misleading. A main road connotes something a little better than a succession of pot holes and deep ruts.