COMMERCIAL MOTORS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 123, 25 May 1923, Page 6

COMMERCIAL MOTORS.

DAMAGE TO ROADS. LOCAL BODIES' THREAT. The difficulties of the Town Boards of Manurewa, Papakura and Papatoetoe in j the construction and maintenance of their main roads were laid before the | < Prime Minister to-day by a deputation < representing these three bodies. |'. The Rev. Mr. Woods, of Papakura, who j • acted as spokesman, drew attention to j', the fact that heavy commercial motors, ij which paid license fees to the city of < Auckland, used the roads extensively, •- and as the surface had not been made ] to withstand such heavy traffic, it was • impossible for the local authorities to , meet the expense of maintenance. The l roads simply' could not carry lorries , with 10 and 12 ton loads. At present ■ the Great South Road was in a shocking , state. Could the Government help by , giving a large sum of money? , Mr. Massey: We cannot. Mr. Woods: That ib the end of that, ; then. He added that Franklin County j Council had done good work on the roads, i but Manukau and his own board had a j, piece of most atrocious road. One solu- i, tion of the problem would be to establish , toll-gates, which had proved successful j in Taranaki. It was unfair that the | city should get the license fees ___ that j the motor vehicles should then be able I to use all the county roads without the . county authorities receiving any financial assistance. In self-defence they pro- . posed to draw up by-laws that would seriously interfere with commercial motor traffic. If it did not do any good | it would at least be an irritation policy. | LEGISLATION FORECASTED. | Sir. Massey agreed that the main road problem was serious. It Involved all the main roads throughout _*ew Zealand and would require millions of pounds. . He .did not think it was possible to raise all the money wanted for the purpose at tho present time. Our credit waa good in London, but if we sought such a huge sum, and it was found that we were not getting good value for the money, our credit would drop to zero, ■ which he wanted to avoid. The county I councils in many places could do more than they were now doing. They were useless if they were going to shove all the i responsibility on to the Government. \ The Prime Minister added that there ' would shortly be some, changes which would bring about an improvement. Ho thought there would have to be a limit j on the weight these vehicles carried. It • was absurd to carry 10 tons over any j road such as the South Road. No road in Xew Zealand would carry these loads. He also thought some adjustment was l desirable in the direction in which the i revenue went from the license fees of I commercial motor vehicles. Personally | he would prefer to avoid toll-gates, but ' if the money could not be raised by any I other means they would have to be "introduced. j