[July 22, 1913 – New Zealand Herald] The damage caused to footpaths and channels in various parts of the Mount Albert Borough, by vehicles crossing them where no proper crossings had been constructed, was brought before the notice of the Mount Albert Borough Council by the Mount Albert Ratepayers’ Association last evening. The new footpaths in Mountain Road, which were being damaged in several places from this cause, were given as an instance.
Several members remarked on the deterioration of various footpaths in the district through the same cause. The Mayor (Mr. M. J. Coyle) said that the Works Committee was now considering a by-law, with a view to meeting the difficulty in side roads, and the by-law would probably be submitted to the council at the next meeting.
There was one by-law empowering the council to compel the people in main roads to put in crossings where necessary, at their own expense, but it was not wished that residents in side streets should have to put in such expensive crossings as those in the main roads.
Probably if a load of metal were put on the footpath, and a box-culvert put in at the residents* expense, this would meet the cases in question. In some of the streets the trouble was very marked. In one street there were ruts a foot deep, made by cartwheels for half-a-mile along the footpath, while in some of the streets, the marks of horses’ feet were 5in or 6in deep. The footpaths in many cases were ten times as bad as the roads.
The ratepayers, he continued, were always ready to complain, but were, unfortunately, not willing to appear as witnesses when a case was brought against a culprit, and consequently it was extremely difficult to secure a conviction. “Without their help and assistance,” he concluded, “we can’t stop the evil.”