TOLL GATES.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 304, 22 December 1921, Page 8

TOLL GATES.

m AND ROAD MAXif TEM ANCE. RESULTS OF INQUIRE PROPOSED INCREASE OF SUBSIDIES. <By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. Important recommendations dealing with the general questions of toll gates in New Zealand have been made in a report placed before Parliament by the Minister of Public Works giving the results of investigation by a committee of three departmental officers. Their inquiries were centred in Taranaki, where most of the toll gates exist, but they point out that eight public bodies in other parts of New Zealand have applied for permission to erect toll gates. Those in existence (all in Taranaki) produced revenue of £11,285 in 1920, of which 11.7 per cent was absorbed in the cost of collection. The distance of roads thus maintained is 76 -miles. The committee notes that the general condition of roads in toll districts has distinctly improved since the advent of toll gates, despite the increased severity of modern traffic, while the cost of construction and maintenance is much higher than formerly. A general survey of the financial position of counties owning toll gates shows that they have rated themselves as highly as could reasonably be expected if valuations were up to date, but many of the valuations are so old that the amounts collected are not as great as they should be. Local bodies are unanimous, says the report, that toll gates are a retrograde step, but, in the absence of any other legal method of apportioning the heavy cost of road maintenance, and in the present state of local body finance, they have no other alternative. SUBSIDY RECOMMENDATIONS. The committee recommends the introduction of legislation providing that no future toll gates be authorised, and that on the coming into operation of the Main Road Bill or other compensating legislation all existing toll gates be abolished: that subsidies at the rate of 5/ in the £ on all general rates be collected on capital value or. an equivalent unimproved value be payable from the Consolidated Fund from the same date, but only in proportion as the actual rates levied are to the maximum rates leviable under the Counties Act. The report points out that, as the maximum rate is 3d in the pound on the capital value, a county rating Id in the pound would only receive onc-tliird subsidy, and other ratings similarly. The report suggests 20 per cent tyre tax, out of which subsidies as above would be payable, the remainder to be devoted to maintenance of such arterial roads as are so declared by the Government. Discussing the general effect of this subsidy system, the report states that over the whole Dominion the outlay should not exceed by more than £20,000 the total subsidies already paid annually, viz., £150,000. Under this scheme there will be a tendency to form larger counties with a higher standard of organisation. The operation of the Main Roads Bill would relieve some counties of portions of road maintenance, and it is suggested that iv such cases 50 per cent, of the average annual maintenance costs of these main roads be deducted from the annual subsidy.