FOR GOOD ROADS.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 27, 1 February 1921, Page 5

FOR GOOD ROADS.

NEW BH-L" BEING PREPARED. TAX ON TYKES. TO CREATE MAINTENANCE FUND. The advent and rapid increase in the use of motors has made it necessary for somebody to look after the national highways. This is the main reason behind the Government scheme of road construction and maintenance which is described in outline by Hon. J. G. Coates, who states that a Bill is now J being drafted to embody the policy | mapped out by the Government. By this Bill" he said, the Government I sought, not to interfere with local coni trol of the main roads, but to get a j I greater uniformity in maintenance ■ I work than wa; existing at present. | ! The way of doing this was to define I ptactly the area to go under the juris- | ; diction of each local body, and to get i I earh body to elect, a board or commis- . ' -iorv to control the main roads in its : area i The scheme further proposes to set | 'up a fund to augment the sums already granted for the maintenance of tie Do- , minion's main roads, and this fund I will be derived from a motor or a ; tyre tax. ! In Auckland, at any rate. Mr. Coates' - own remarks about the proposal appear Ito be true. The Minister said he expected strong opposition from some j quarters, but not from the motorists, : who he thought wouhi be quite willing I to pay a tax if it assured them good ; roads. That seercr t-o be just what rei preventative motorists of Auckland did j think, when questioned by the "Star" ! this morning. The Automobile Associa- ' tion approved of the principle of a tyre , ■ tax to build a good roads fund? some ; ■■me,ago, and the Good Roads Associa- j : tion, in which motorists naturally struck a dominant note, was also in acoird with this movement. "The roads of New Zealand are not |whst they should be." said one jrentleI man who has many thousands of miles j !of motor travplline in New Zealand to \h» credit. "Mr. i oatfs is quite rig-ht I when he hints that there i= a lack of j community of interest. Amonj motorists j the experience of running , suddenly off a ! fairly good road into an awful stretch; lof pot-holes and rough patches is quite i j rarmnn. In fact, it ia often remarkably | ■ easy to sec where one eonnty ends and '■ an"the.r begins, and it is not at all rare to find an average road, then a half-mile or so of murderous going, and then on to an average road again." Another informant was qnite convinced of the justice of a tyre tax. though he conld not much fairness in taxinir a car. By the tyre tax. he argued, every man who used the roads •would pay in accordance his tyre consumption, or, in other words, according to the extent of his travelling and the amount he used the roadis. Motorists are*-waiting with mixed feeli ings to see the text of this new bill. They are hoping'that it will do good in improving the roads of the Dominion, and make them more uniform. But they realise the task in front of Mr. Coatee to bring what he terms - 'a community of interest , * into being v not at all an easy one.