NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 202, 28 August 1886, Page 1

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The Government have, we fear, the boat of the argument over tho repairs to tho South Road. The following telegrams have passed between Mr J. M, Lennoac, Chairman of the meeting of Road Boards held at Otahuhu, and the Minister of Public Works : —

Regret tolla were removed without provision being made for repairing roads. Highway rates utterly inadequate to put the road in repair. Would it not be well to put tbe unemployed to work on the road to get it into good repair, and afterwards throw the responsibility upon local boards 1 Road at present In a shocking state. Accidents daily occurring.— J. M. Lennox.

The reply sent by the Minister was as follows: —

Wellington. August 27 —J. M. Lennox, Esq. Auckland,— Re maintenance Great South Roaa. Cannot see that any rood would be attained by temporarily reopening question at this stage, as Government maintenance could only be temporary in any oase, and if we took over maintenance now we should have to go through ho whole laborious process of divest-

icg ourselves of responsibility by Order-In-Coun-cil, &c, as was done before; and wo could not in any case do this more effectually than we havo alroady done it, as very ample notice was given to all the local bodies for months before the Government dropped the work. The Government did not abolish the toil. Wo merely refrained from re-lttting the right to collect them, leaving in the hands ef the local bodies to take such act" on as icscards re-lettlDg them as they might think fit, but we were continually being petitioned to remove tho tolls, while at the same time being urged to maintain the road to even a higher state of efficiency than we actually did maintain it, and that, of coura was manifestly out of the quoßtlon.—Edwav d Richardson.

There is no denying that Mr Richardson's telegram summarizes with tolerable fairness the course of events preceding the abolition ot the tolls and the relegation of all responsibility to the local bodies. Unless the districts affected were prepared to work the Counties Act, the agitation kept up through the member for the district for the removal of the toll-bar, was a very senseless one, because it could only end in tho confusion which has actually been brought about. Tolls are, no doubt, a most objectionable mode of raieiog_oney,but throwing upon small highway districts an unfair and oppressive burden for work done on behalf of other'districts is still more objectionable ; and impassable roads are the most objectionable of all. We do not believe for a moment that the Government will recede

from the position they have taken up, and it would be wise for the local bodies affected to face the difficulty at once. Their best policy, probably, is to bring the Counties Act into operation, and eitherby a system of tolls —or what is better, a small rate—provide for the main lines of traffic in the district. The question must Bt once be taken into serious consideration by the districts interested.

Tho Sydney Chamber of Commerce aro moving their Government to renew the subsidy to tbe Eastern Extension Cable Company in order that a reduction may be made on the cable chargos between New Zealand and Australia. Tho Council of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce are moving in the same direction, and intend to ask the cooperation of other Chambers throughout the colony. Now we should be very glad to get the benefit of cheap telegraphic rates, especially if partially secured by the cortributiona of another colony, but the system of subsidy for a commercial enterprise which is established, and already possesses a monopoly, is a very vicious ono. We can understand a subsidy for a fixed period as a guarantee- to secure the construction of a work, but we cannot see why £5,000 a-year should be taken from public taxation and distributed among the persons who happen for their own pur-, poses to require cable facilities. The newspapers suffer more from the exorbitant cable rates than any other class, the charges being the same for press messages as for private work ; I nevertheless wecouldnotconscientiouslyaek the Government to increase the public burdens in order that our telegraph bills may be cheapened. If the joint colonies are to pay a subsidy for the purpose of compelling the Eastern Extension Cable Company to abate their exorbitant tariff, let them pay it to some independent enterprise, which will break up the monopoly, and not fortify it against competition. The colonies should combine together to subsidise a trans-Pacific cable, taking in the duplication of the New Zealand and Australian cable as part of the complete circuit. We can see the public policy of a subsidy paid for such a purposo as that, but certainly not the propriety of bolstering up the existing Company by Government aid.