ROAD COSTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 263, 5 November 1932, Page 8

ROAD COSTS.

There is no necessity for me to "instruct" public opinion on this subject, as suggested by "Accuracy" on the 22nd ult. The public know only too "well that all my statements not only show an intimate acquaintance with the relevant normal facts but also accuratelyreflect their own opinion, based on personal observation and experience, if we are to judge by the resolutions continually .being passed by local bodies and other organisations, supporting my contention. Those of "Accuracy," on the other hand, are quite misleading, and only confuse the issue, that the Tisers should pay the whole cost o3c all the roads they use, instead ofi only part of the cost of some of the roads. The chairman of the Hutt County! Council was even more definite on this point, recently, when he stated that in his county "three-quarters of the roads receive no-sub; * sidy from the petrol tax, and the other fourth-, is only in part maintained by the motorists." . Ho puts tlio national revenue from motor, transport at £2,018,000 for the year, and that expenditure on the roads at £6,061,000, 6cn "Accuracy" had better dispute his figures now if he is not satisfied with those of theNational Expenditure Commission, quoted in.. my letter. It serves no purpose for "Accuracy 3 ' to remark that a large proportion of motor' taxation never reaches the local hody, for? surely everybody knows that, hut we are dealing with the whole revenue, wherever it goes, as against the whole expenditure, whether ftt the cost of the ratepayer or of the taxpayer. "Accuracy" should examine more carefully his rate notices, and the accounts of his local authority, and then he would see that it is not "drainage, water supply and other services" that account for the increase in recent years, so it is idle to suggest that the ihuge increase in rates, brought about by road expon-J' diture "proves nothing." It proves quite a lot, that it is time motor transport paid for all its costs, instead of palming off so much of it on the shoulders of the ratepayers and taxpayers; and then its position will be similar to that of trams and railways.. "Accuracy" should he more accurate in discriminating between opinions and facts when referring so slightingly to the Minister of Finance. " The latter did not give "an expression of opinion";' it was a plain statement of fact, which nobody ' has disproved. VIATOR.