Bay of Plenty Times MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 1914. MOTOR TRAFFIC.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XLII, Issue 6064, 19 January 1914, Page 4

Bay of Plenty Times MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 1914. MOTOR TRAFFIC.

Local bodies throughout the Dominion, and in fact general governments and local bodies throughout the world, :irc at their wit's ends how to regulate motor traffic and to maintain the highways with which the trurtic plays such havoc. The Tauranga. County Council has lately been moved to give the matter serious attention, and the question was brought under the notice of the Hon. Mr Herries when here lust week. His statement that it is now under the consideration of Cabinet is reassuring and will, we trust, result in the Council delaying any drastic action until the result of these deliberations arc knowu. A suggestion made at the last County Council meeting that an annual fee of £10 be chaiged i--i one that cannot be seriously entertained. The whole matter is essentially one for the General Government to deal with, aud isolated action by any local body will not tend to solve what lias become a national problem. Nor should it be forgotten that the old world is as much puzzled over the. matter as we are. The following clipped from a recent, exchange shows very clearly how serious the problem really.is : — " Motor ears are destroying, says a resident of Oamaru, what centuries of weather and traffic have left unmarked, the surface of the old Roman road from Calais to Paris. The highway that has paticnily borne the tramp of legions, the tumbril's rumble, and the rattle of the coach, is giving up the ghost to.tluy silent pneumatic tire. It is not.-a-ione the tires which tear up the road, although the tenacious grip of the speeding rubber plaster loosens the gravel, but the wind which is raised by the rapid car. This dries the surface and sucks the binding dust from between the metal, letting in the frost and allowing water to sink to the ancient foundations/' Motor driven vehicles have come to stay and their numbers will increase. New methods of road making have therefore to be adopted to meet the changed conditions, and it would be well for the Committee appointed by the County Council to move not merely in a more or less vain endeavour to solve the problem locally, but to devise or suggest some means for holding a national convention out of which an Executive might arise, with a paid permanent secretary, empowered to draw up', by-la*vs for the regulation of the traffic generally and to gather as much information and data regarding roadmaking from countries where the motor is much more in evidence than here. The matter could then be dealt with in the the comprehensive manner that its importance- demands. It is useless endeavouring to keep our roads in <iood order by the old methods, and tnx the owners of the motor vehicles sufficiently to meet the extra cost. Such.a method would be unfair. The motor is having precisely the same eliect in enhancing the value <>£ land as the railway, and we cannot see that it is equitable that the motor car owueis should be taxed, while the individual who reaps many of the advantages should escape. Of course there is no way in which he cjl.ll escape as Ihe niolor car owner who plies for hire will inevitably pas< on ;iuy tax imposed upon him, Su.tui1 as the '• road hog" is coiii'enicd L-lio Council already iurs adequate power to df-ii with him. and should,do so unsparingly.