COUNTY SIDE ROADS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 113, 14 May 1936, Page 20

COUNTY SIDE ROADS.

HIGH COST OF TAR-SEALING. $ RATEPAYERS SEEK SUBSIDY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) MORRINSVILLE, Wednesday. That county councils should he subsidised by the Main Highways Board from the petrol tax in order to enable them to tar-seal metalled side roads which arc proving too costly to maintain, was urged by Mr. I>. Johnson, the representative of Waitoa riding on the Fiako County Council-, when replying to requests made at a meeting of the Tatuanui Ratepayers' Association for the tar-sealing of the roads opening off the main llamilton-Te Aroha highway at Tatuanui. Mr. Johnson said the Piako County had for some time urged the reasonableness of its claim for a subsidy on the tar-sealing of-side roads in addition to the present subsidy of £3 for £1 for maintenance of main highways. It had been pointed out that traffic using the side roads contributed to the petrol tax as well as traffic using the main highways. The county had insufficient revenue to tar-seal metalled roads which had been "thrashed to pieces" by heavy motor lorry traffic for years, with the result tlijit the depth of metal was becoming thinner each year. The cost of niaintainance metal for No. 8 road, Tatuanui was about £100 a mile for the past 12 months, and it would cost about £1000 a mile to buildup the road with metal and tar-seal it. Representatives of the 30 ratepayers present complained that they were paying large sums in rates for metalled roads, and expressed the opinion that there would be a saving in maintenance costs if the roads could be tar-sealed at once. They thought some of the Waitoa riding's credit balance of £2000 could be used to tar-seal the roads. Mr. Johnson replied that the £2000 would not do much tar-sealing, and there were other roads in the riding which needed building up with metal, as the metal crust had almost been worn through. It had been the policy of the Piako County Council to have a balance available in the riding accounts so that if subsidies were offered for tar-sealing more roads, a start could be made at once. Out of 23 miles of tar-sealing done in the county during the past year, only two miles were side roads and the rest main highways. The council would like to seal more side roads, but the capital cost was too 'much for the riding funds to stand unless subsidised as in the case of main highways.

The meeting expressed approval of the county council's, attitude. On the motion of the chairman, Mr. P. Eushton, it was decided to recommend that one mile of No. 8 road and one mile of Cussin's Road be tar-sealed during the next 12 months.