MAIN HIGHWAYS ACT.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18369, 30 April 1925, Page 13

MAIN HIGHWAYS ACT.

SUGGESTED SOUTH ISLAND | BOARD. VIEWS OF PRESIDENT OF SOUTH ISLAND MOTOR UNION. 1-ronx some opinions expressed yesterday by M r j. s. Hawkcs, president of 'the South Island Motor Union, a representative of Press" got the impression that the, resolution arrived at .by th ° conference of South Island Progress Leagues at Invcrcargill on Tues;,day concerning the amendment of the Highways Aet to permit of a :South Island Main Highways Board being set up, is not likely to meet with ■the approval of the majority of motor;isfca in the South Island.

. It seemed to Mr Hawkes that, judging by the telegraphed reports of the discussion, some of the speakers were not very familiar with the provisions of the Act. For instance, Mr S. B. MacDonald (Otago) was reported to have remarked that "one had onlv to analyse, the expenditure of the Board to see that more money was being spent in the North Island, despite tho fact that the .amounts collected from motorists in each Island Averc practically equal. Having regard to that fact, one would expect the, expenditure by tho Board to be m a similar ratio, but he was sorry to say i|l u t fla a nob k een a ono> >> j^ r Hawkcs commented that according to the latest- published figures (which appeared in "The Press" of the 20th mst) there are. 69-,386 motor vehicles in the North Island, as compared with 38,847 io. the South Island. These totals determine the proportions in which the Board's highways fund is to be allocated' as- between the two islands, and worked out three-fifths for the North Island and two-fifths for tho South Island:. It followed, therefore, that the North Island was entitled to larger proportion of the Highways fund than, the South Island.

Apart,, however, from that phase of the matter, Mr Hawkca said that the South Island 1 would get all the money it, was entitled to- if it applied for it; . that: it had not yet got that amount was due, more or less, to the ajpathy of the local bodies in the South Island. Under the Act the local bodies could get. £1 for £l subsidy for maintenance work, !and a subsidy of £2' for £1 for construction work. The fact that more money was being spent in the North Islaud was due, first, to the greater needs ;in respect of construction work, and, secondly, to the willingness of the local bodies to make the necessary expenditure, or raise the necessary loans, to r qualify for the subsidies. In the' South Island it was generally admitted that : the requirements in respect- of construction' work were not so great as in the : North Island, and that maintenance was : more necessary in the South. The Highways Board had expressed itself in \favonr of the subsidy for maintenance \ieing increased. . "We. don't want it to go out," Mr liawkes said, "that we object to what thij North Island is getting under the Aufc. "We recognise the position—that the «N"orth Island is getting what it is entitled to k It is no use talking nonsense. The South Island ean get its proportion if it wants it and applies for it. It can get every penny of it if it ! asks fov it and is. prepared to find its > share o).' construction, or maintenance, expenditure. The South Island Motor ! Union ie perfectly satisfied that there is S nothing t<v complain of as far as the j Act stanila, at present. .The Union knows, and* the Board recognises, that the Act must be amended—but that ean T not be done '.till Parliament meets. We have the assurance of the Board that an endeavour wil\ be made to get the Act amended; the Board recognises that more is required for maintenance. Most of our roads aire; metalled, and it is only a question of bringing them up to a high standard axid keeping up that i standard."