HIGHER SUBSIDY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 198, 23 August 1928, Page 12

HIGHER SUBSIDY.

GREAT SOUTH ROAD PAVING.

DEPUTATION TO MINISTER.

HEAVY LOCAL BURDEN

Suburban local bodies between the city and Papakura are represented on a deputation which leaves for Wellington this evening, to interview the Minister of Public Works and the officials of the Main Highways Board, on the question of an increased subsidy on the Great South Road. The members of the deputation are Messrs. R. G. Clark (One Tree Hill Road Board), A. W. Hall (chairman, Papatoetoe Town Board), and A. Q. A. Sexton (chairman, Manurewa Town Board).

Controlled by eight separate bodies, the section of road concerned has a total length of 15 miles 76 chains: Manukau County, 5 miles 53 chains; Manurewa, 2 miles 2 chains; Papakura, 1 mile 68 chains; Otahuliu, 1 mile 60 chains; One Tree Hill, 1 mile 44 chains; Mount Wellington, 1 mile 41 chains; Papatoetoe, 73 chains; Ellerslie, 55 chains. Expenditure on it amounted to £159,023, the dtails being: Manukau, £41,901; Manurewa, £23,550; Papakura, £19,458; Otahuliu, £22,940; One Tree Hill, £22,975; Mount Wellington, £14,080; Papatoetoe, £7119; Ellerslie, £7000.

With the exception of the Otahuliu Borough Council, each of the controlling bodies received from the Highways Board a subsidy on the work, the payments being based on a fifty per cent of the cost of a bitumen road, which meant a payment of somewhat less than a £ for £ for concrete. By an amendment to the Main Highways Act last year, the amount of the subsidy was raised to £3 for £1 for local bodies situated close to the large centres of population; and the deputation will approach the Minister with a request that the increase be made retrospective. In the case of the Manurewa and Papakura town districts, the loan for pa\ ing the Great South Road has meant a rate of about a penny in the £ for the payment of interest and sinking fund, and somewhat less for the other bodies. A traffic tally taken last December for a period of a week showed that the traffic averaged 1200 vehicles a day, and amounted to 3000 on the Sunday the tally was completed. When the Minister was interviewed in regard to the same matter almost twelve months ago he noted the representations, and replied that the matter would require much consideration, as the question was a large one.