REDUCED INCOME.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 103, 3 May 1930, Page 12

REDUCED INCOME.

HIGHWAYS MAINTENANCE. CHAIRMAN MAKES FORECAST. "LESS BENZINE WILL BE USED." (By Telegraph.-—Press Association.) BLENHEIM, Friday. The fact that the Main Highways Board fully expected a reduction in income this year, and in consequence would have to restrict expenditure in some degree, was made clear ■by the chairman, Mr. F. W. Furkert, at a conference between the board and Marlborough local bodies. Mr. Furlcert's remarks were prompted by the fact that several requests were made to the board for the declaration of additional highways in connection with which the board would have to pay subsidies. "The board reviews main highways every year, and that review is due this month," he stated. "We must consider the present financial position. All indications at. present are that the public are going to have a smaller purchasing power than for several years past. That means that they will burn less benzine, use .fewer tyres and probably import fewer motor cars, and it is almost certain our revenue will be less. It will not, increase in the way it has been increasing. We will have to go very cannily before we declare any extra highways. f"Any modifications we make may be in the direction of removing from, "the lists roads which do not justify inclusion in the category of highways and giving in substitution roads that have stronger claims to being declared. The ' whole business will have to be gone into carefully in connection with the annual review." .