ROAD CONSTRUCTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 244, 15 October 1929, Page 8

ROAD CONSTRUCTION.

NATIONALISATION URGED.

PRESENT SYSTEM CRITICISED

BURDEN ON RATEPAYERS

The present system of constructing and maintaining main highways is unsatisfactory, and all main arterial trunk roads should be nationalised and controlled by the Main Highways Board, in the opinion of the Associated Chambers of Commerce. This opinion was expressed when a remit, couched in the foregoing terms, was presented to the Conference of the Chambers of Commerce this morning by Mr. A. Wills, of Papakura. Mr. Wills complained that 95 per cent of the traffic on arterial roads like the Auckland-Papakura highway was "outside traffic.'" Despite this fact much'of the cost of the road had to be borne by local bodies in whose district the road was located. It was proposed to extend the road at a cost of £120,000, and of this amount the local bodies would have to provide £30,000. He was not sanguine as to the possibility of the scheme being agreed upon. That the burden of road improvements had praved much heavier in the South Island than in the North Island was argued by Mr. A. F. Wright, of Canterbury. They could not bear further imposts on their properties in the form of special rates, he said. There was, however, need for an arterial road from north to south. Motor taxation supplied a yearly revenue of £1,000,000, so why should not a loan on the security of that amount be raised to carry out the work? By this means the burden of road construction would be transferred from the shoulders of the local bodies and ratepayers. Piecemeal work would also be eliminated, and incidentally assist to relieve unemployment. Mr. A. G. Lunn, of Auckland, spoke in opposition to the nationalisation of roads, saying that the country could not afford the luxury of extensive concrete roads. There was need for a check on extravagant expenditure by local bodies. . In reply, Mr. Wills added that if arterial roads were nationalised local bodies would be in a position to spend more on secondary roads, which were being neglected to a large extent at .present. The remit was carried.