DOMINION ROADS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 78, 12 January 1928, Page 4

DOMINION ROADS.

POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT. THE USERS SHOULD PAY. (Per Press Association.) WHANGAREX, January 11. In dealing with the Government's reading policy in a speech to-day, Mr Coates mentioned that 6000 miles of highways had been mapped out and they had been faced by an immediate demand for more improvements. In the first year of the programme, 1924, the expenditure per mile was £sl; in 1925 it had been £73, and in 1926 it had risen to £lll. If £3 per car was otnly sufficient in 1924 to pay £sl per mile, who was goinig to pay for reading at £lll per mile? On the principle that users should pay the petrol tax had been imposed, and with the added revenue it was intended eventually to increase the mileage of highways by 3000. The cost of maintenance was almost in exact ratio to the increase in the number of cars imported. In the year 1925-6 local bodies had contributed £185,000 for roads maintenance, and in 1926-27 they had paid £273,000, yet they had been unable to meet the demands for expenditure by £200,000. Where had the money come from to pay for the extra cost of reading? It had come off the land, and the effect apparently had beeni that byroads had suffered. Taxation of the land Would have to be steadied up, or they would have increased difficulty in settling new areas and in keeping on those settlers already there. Nobody, he claimed, could find fault with the Government in) its effort to relieve local taxation and place the load fairly otn the shoulders of those who ought to pay.