BOUNDARY ROADS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 198, 22 August 1928, Page 9

BOUNDARY ROADS.

ROSKILL AND CITY.

A LEGAL DIFFICULTY

The Auckland City Council is prepared to effect permanent repairs to The Drive, Selwyn Road, Landscape Road and St. Andrew's Road, which are boundary roads between the city and Mount Roskill, at a total cost of £7482, half of this amount, £3741, to be paid by Mount Roskill, payments to be spread over a period of live years. This offer of the City Council is acceptable to the Road Board, which is prepared to pay interest on the money. It has transpired, however, that the mutual arrangement between the two bodies was not stiictly legal, and had to be abandoned. The Mount Roskill Road Board recently applied to the Minister of Internal Affairs requesting him to allow the insertion of a clause in the Local Legislation Bill to get over the difficulty. The Secretary to the Treasury furnished to the board a copy of a letter received from Mr. J. R. Robertson, on behalf of himself and other ratepayers, objecting to the board raising a loan of £3000 for these works without first obtaining the consent of the ratepayers, on the grounds: (1) That it is bad policy, except where the work to be done is really urgent from a health point of view, or other equally sound reason, to allow road boards to raise loans without first having obtained the sanction of ratepayers. (2) As thfe system of rating on unimproved values is making it hard for some ratepayers in the southern portion of the district to retain their holdings, they asked for the Minister's protection. _ (3) There is nothing in common between the southern and northern portions of the district which ia closely built upon and where the whole of the prospective loan, if approved, would be spent. Mr. Robertson further stated that the party he represented had no grievance against the Road Board, neither are they a small group of ratepayers against progress. On the other hand, they are inmost to a man strong for Greater Auckland, and 6implv driven to this step as a matter of self-protec-tion. The Minister now informed the board that he cannot agree to their request, because, as he says, this is not an appropriate subject for a Local Legislation Bill clause. The effect of it is really, he says, to introduce a new principle into the system of financing road construction. The board has also been asked by the secretary of the Local Loans Board that when applying for sanction to raise the loan to present his board with any comments it desired to make regarding Mr. Robertson's letter.

The Road Board decided to confer with the Auckland City Council with the object of securing its co-operation to induce the Minister of Internal Affairs to reconsider his decision.